Ice Age: Re-frosted
by Thougtsfromthehead
Summary: A FF for the continuation of Collision Course, as the Herd must fight against one of their own dearest member who was taken controlled by a sentient spirit. They bare on a journey to search for support and work with unlikely allies to save their home from the outrage of the spirit.
1. A Mysterious Icicle

**_After successfully managed to prevent the magnetic magical asteroid from impact, Peaches and Julian married, It's time for them to set off on an adventure on their own, chase their dreams and explore, just like how Manny and Ellie told them to._**

**P**acking off and preparing to go, Peaches asks them politely:"You guys have anything else to say before we go out?"

Manny, looking at Peaches with his big wide eyes, comes to give her a hug:"Remember, don't stop until you have make your dreams come true and found out the things you want to." He said it with a soft voice. "Oh, and don't forget to look out for each other!" Ellie added.

"I will miss all of you guys, We'll be back to visit you two!" Julian said it with a cheerful tone.

The possum brothers came to give their fuzzy giant niece a hug.

"Don't forget about us okay?"

"I won't" Peaches quickly replied, as she nudged both of them with her trunk.

"Remember sweet-heart, we'll always be her. If you ever need help, call us." Sid came to say goodbye as well. He knew he won't be seeing them for a long time.

Peaches just give Sid a friendly smile.

"Safe travels, Hotshot, and you too, Bro-son!" as Manny gives them his last farewell.

And so, they set out of Herd Valley to discover and explore beautiful lands and destination as they roam around freely. Places that would be too fantasy to be real and too odd to be true. Sometimes, Peaches let out a "Woah" everytime she was completely immersed in the landscapes. From high mountains, to green jungles. Both of them feasted their eyes on the tremendous beauty of the sights.

They traveled around, as they met new animal species and exotic weathers from all around the continent.

"Julian, this might be the best decision ever" she said as they wander around to new biomes everytime, which makes him blush slightly, he was feeling really lucky to stay with someone like Peaches.

Peaches was having the time of her life, with her husband. It was like a never ending dream for her. She was completely drowned in the hype of adventure and sight-seeing for days and nights.

That's not the case for Scrat, however, He was trying to get the acorn on top of the tree only to be picked up by a random bird, which makes them engage in a "Stop hitting me or there will be consequences" type of fight.

The fun and beauty soon came to an end as the duo ran out of places to go and explore around the continent.

"Let's visit an old place, my dad used to love it, despite it being old and common."

"Really? Sweet! Where are we gonna head to?" Julian didn't really care if the place is old or common, all he wanted was to spend time with his wife.

"We are heading to Ice Valley! One of my dad's old home, where there are events, both happy and sad, which leads to today" she ended that sentence with a bit of sadness on her face. But the joy and hype of adventure quickly smothered away the said emotion. "There are still some beautiful scenes over there so **let's go!**" she yelled **that** out in the peaceful atmosphere of the current place they're in, which makes Julian smile.

**-****•-**

Buck was having a blast in the Dino-world, as he rode the somewhat tamed Rudy around and feeling like a god. He then paid a visit at the Dino-bird's home, as he wanted to invite them to join his "fun".

"Hey Roger, wanna go up there and visit the herd with me? Just a little visit!" Buck asked the Dino-bird.

"Well I guess I could, I'm pretty much free today" Roger nodded as he said it"

"Awesome! Well, what are you waiting for? Chop chop, come on then" After that he jumped off Rudy and just flings up into the sky with what was supposed to be his "Buck-made" launch pad from a bent down tree and some ropes.

"Awell, Buck has always been Buck"

"Hey, where are you planning to go with that weasel?" Gertie intrigued.

"Uhhh, just to visit the herd, my sister. You wanna come?" replied Roger.

"Sorry bro, got some things to do with dad today, just be back soon."

Meanwhile, the head of the herd, Manny was talking a walk around the area. When Ellie came along and greets him:

"Good morning sweetie, how are you today?"

Manny was having a weird blue mood, he just stood there looking up at the fresh big blue skies, but Ellie didn't quite notice it.

"Oh, I'm just walking around, and having a lo...I mean, I'm fine today." After Manny blurted that sentence out, Ellie immediately know what was her husband thinking.

"Daaww, Manny, it's alright, They'll be fine out there, They'll protect each other, and most importantly, will pay us a visit one day!" Manny stood there in amusement wondering how did Ellie read his emotions like a book.

"Well, I guess let's just hope for the best" claimed Manny. After that, they went back to have breakfast. Possum brothers Crash and Eddie was having a rock paper scissor fight, only to have it turn into a fight like they always have daily.

"Hi Manny!" as Sid walk by, with a box in his claws.

"Hey Sid! What you got there?" as the male mammoth curiously ask.

"It's a gift that I prepared for you, it's really nice!"

Manny take the box as Sid give it to him, he then opens it, Manny gave out a "God, Sid what are you up to now?" look.

"The "Lord of the Flames" has gifted you a-" before Sid can finish his sentence, Manny cut him off.

"Bag of Flints?" as Manny looks at Sid, waiting for the sloth's reply. The sloth paused for a while before he slowly reply to his big mammoth friend.

"Yes"

"Why do you give me this?"

"It's a blessing from the Lord myself"

"A blessing from the lord of Burning their own tails?" Manny felt that Sid was kinda ironic after he claimed the sentence.

Sid realized he had his tail set on fire by the campfire nearby, making him panic and he jumped immediately into the river by the side. This made Manny chuckle, he still remember the first time this happened to the sloth decades ago, like it was printed into his brain.

"Everyone makes mistakes, even Lords" Sid whined.

"Don't you worry, you are a Lord, Sid. Lord of Mistakes" Diego added as him and Shira came just in time to witness that.

"I'm just kidding" Diego added, as he didn't wanted to be harsh on the soft sloth's feeling.

**-****•-**

Peaches took Julian to visit her father's old home, Although quite frosty but Julian felt warm exploring the place with Peaches. They explore countless places around it, including the cave paintings.

"These are the drawings that haunts my dad the most" Peaches said that to Julian.

"What's the story behind it?" Julian wanted to know more.

"His wife and first child was killed decades ago by humans, this painting shows it. It might be a still drawing, but for him, it's a raw footage of his dreadful past."

"Man, now I know why Bro-dad didn't greet me well at the start, I kinda feel bad for him"

"Don't worry, there's always a rainbow around the corner!"

"What?"

"Uncle Sid taught me that sentence. Because after he saw this picture, he learns how to forgive things, and eventually returned a baby back to it's father!" Peaches said that with a pride tone, she really admired her father's accomplishments.

"Peaches, you are really lucky to have a father like that." Julian and Peaches traded smiles after he finished off that sentence.

They were chattering around for a while in the cave when suddenly there's a sound like stones just crashed into each other.

"What was that?" They both conclude that sentence at the same time, as things start to "warm up".

Peaches spotted a slightly unaligned plate of stone behind them, so she came to check.

"Peaches, watch out, it might be dangerous!" Julian shouted.

"Don't worry, I got this" Peaches then slowly approached the area near that stone plate.

It started to crumble, and she started to fright

"Nevermind." Peaches said as she starts to back down.

"DON'T GET TOO CLOSE!" Julian yelled as he comes over to pull his wife out.

The ground near the plate and the plate itself breaks, revealing a sinkhole that leads down to somewhere. There's a weird source of white, cyan light emitting from the inside.

"A secret entrance, Cool!" Peaches said and was ready to move in, but just before she could, Julian asked her.

"You sure you wanted to get in? It looks kinda scary and dangerous to me." Julian wanted to always make sure that his wife is always safe.

"Come on, we are exploring, don't start to be overprotective like my dad!" she laughed that off.

"You coming in fluff boy?" Peaches mocks Julian's cowardliness in a friendly way. Julian just sighed and join her, because staying outside and wait is a worse option.

And so, they entered into a ruin, everything around it was either frosted or was buried in snow, everything but the paths.

"How did it snow or freeze in here, it's completely cut off from the outside" Peaches wondered, she was really confused, as things in this ruin didn't make sense at all.

"Ooooh, spooky. You should know that we are in a strange place." said Julian.

As they entered deeper into the ruin, it started to get even colder.

"It's starting to feel a bit chilling in here" claimed Julian, he can feel the chilling breeze getting more intense every step forward.

"Well, at least it is a nice place." Peaches replied, she didn't care about it much.

They followed the emitted lightsource to check what was it. There are statues of weird entities and strange symbols carved deeply into the ruin's walls, but only one sentence of symbols was highlighted in a bunch of other million symbols. It was highlighted in blue-ish white:

𝙹 リ𝙹ℸ ̣ !¡𝙹𝙹ꖌᒷ ℸ ̣ ᒷ ᓭ!¡ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ℸ ̣ ᒷ ᓵᓵꖎᒷ ᒷᓭᒷᒲʖꖎᔑリᓵᒷ.

"Can these symbols be translated?" Peaches wondered, but her question was soon to be answered by Julian

"Is this… The Standard Galactic Alphabet?" Julian asked, but he feels like it's an answer to his said question.

"It is!" Peaches shouted it. "Also check this out! I found out what was emitting the light!"

"You check it first, lemme try to translate this highlighted sentence in stone" Julian said as he was more interested in what the sentence is trying to say

Peaches follows the lightsource, and what she found was like a den at the end of the ruin, filled with ice, snow, accompanied with the extreme cold and dry atmosphere in it. Peaches can feel it going through her fur, but those factors weren't enough to stop her from continuing. As she was looking around the den, her eyes caught itself on what it seems like a throne, made out of icicles. There was a single icicle that emits the lightsource from before, it was floating on the throne, the thing was like a star in the night skies.

"JULIAN! Look at this, oh my!" She shouted, making Julian come to her, however he is still looking down on a piece of leaf he used as a note, trying to translate the entire sentence, but he looks worried, as he managed to translate the first one or two words.

"Sweetie, look at this floating icicle! That's where the lightsource come from!" Her excitement increased.

Only because of that, Julian looked up to see the icicle in all of its glory

"Woah! Peaches, that would be nice for a torch in the night when we roam around the lands, a freezing torch, how ironic yet cool is that."

However, that doesn't dissuade Julian from his task, to translate the text from the walls of the ruin. The more he translate, the more shocking it gets.

"I'm gonna get it!" Peaches said as she got closer to the icicle. It started to shine brighter. The luminous icicle started to reveal its magnifying beauty. It was like a treasure chest from the darkest of dungeons. It lures Peaches like a bait in the eyes of a fish.

Except for a fact that it was literally a **bait**.

It was that moment when Julian was in a huge panic attack. He quickly jitters because of fear as he finished translating the sentence engraved on the ruin's walls.

"Peaches...PEACHES!" He shouted, as he tried his best to warn her.

"Julian?" she replied, only to be greeted with a chilling sentence.

"Do...not...g-get...near...the..i-ii..**ICE**!" Julian dissuade her from getting closer.

He shout the last letter in fear, as the entire sentence he translated depicts imminent danger.

"Peaches, STAY OUT!"

"Come one Julian, like I'm gonna be scared of a floating light icicle" She just ignores her husband warning, she is completely clueless about the surprises that the "icicle" had for her in store.

"It's not just a floating light icicle, It's A SPIRIT!" He reveals the icicle's true identity, but it was too late.

That sentence from Julian however caught Peaches attention.

"What?!" She raised her eyebrows, not realizing the threat in disguise right in plain sight.

The icicle suddenly floats higher, and its sharp pointy tip turned to the nearest target (which is Peaches)

"Uhhh...what is it DOING?!" She started to back away a few steps.

"PEACHES, RUN!"

Peaches quickly turned her back and took a few steps running, but the icicle launched itself hands down at the speed of sound, hitting Peaches right at the back, and it was in a few inches deep.

"PEACHES!" Julian shouted as he was shocked about what just happened in front of his eyes.

Julian rushed to her only to see the icicle shine brighter when it impaled into Peaches back. She just manage to let out an "A!" before dazzling around, and collapse.

She drops to the floor, unconscious, Julian came to check at her wound as tears form in his eyes.

"Peaches..no..no! Not now! Don't leave me here, don't end our adventure now."

There was no blood coming out from the wound, her body is stone cold. Julian can feel it, as he tried to keep his tears in. He tried to pull the icicle out, but remember that he shouldn't since Ellie once taught him how to perform first-aid, that pulling a sharp object from the wound is a bad idea.

"Peaches!" He shouted her name in agony.

He tried to bring her back to consciousness, but all efforts were futile, he only just sit by her body and cried more. He looked at her motionless body, as "rivers" flow from his eyes. He can't do anything about this situation, it feels like it was over for the unfortunate Peaches. The pain grew inside him more and more when he tried to deny the fact: That he failed to protect his own mate. He insist on calling her name and shake her body, but she just didn't respond to his call, nor any efforts that he threw at. He looked at her nearly closed eye and open mouth in disbelief. He held her trunk with his, hoping a miracle would happen, but **nothing **happened.

**It's over, **but is it?

Moments passed, he thought he'd lost her, but then, he saw her leg violently twitches.

"Peaches, Peaches you okay?" He was hoping for a respond from the wounded female mammoth. Anything but a respond.

He did received one, but in a more **physical **way.

A cluster of icicle swiftly rise from the ground, and almost hit Julian in the head if he didn't fall back. Something was causing this abnormality. He quickly backed away from Peaches.

"Peaches?" He started to worry and think about the unthinkable.

Peaches opens one of her eyes big and wide, but her eye is no longer green, it has a weird tone of ice in it, long with white blue-ish color, and the veins in her eye is also that white blue-ish color. Some of her fur turned into white, but it is still mostly brown and dark. She then give out some screeching that has some of her accent. Her husband still in fear calling her name.

"Peaches, it's me!" Julian doesn't know what had gotten into her. She screamed and screeched at his words, looking at him like a stranger.

She then charge towards Julian, sending the round mammoth into the walls. Despite being a huge mammoth, Julian can instantly feel the sharp pain as his back hit the hard stone wall with a big impact.

**"OWW!...Peaches?!" **He groaned out the pain, but tried one more time on calling her name with all of his remaining determination.

There's some icicles forming on top of Peaches' sides, Its sharp-like dagger tips was already pointing at Julian. He started to realized that the mammoth he loved is no longer in front of him anymore, but what in front of him now was a dangerous entity.

"WOAH!" He let out as he barely get hit by the icicles. Looking at the deadly sharp tips from the icicle is already nightmarish enough for this friendly mammoth, not to include Peaches.

Peaches then starts to cry, let out a zombie-like scream of pain or feeling lost. She had completely lost her control over her body and mind. Julian is now in a fight-or-flight situation.

Knowing that Peaches isn't there or isn't in control of herself anymore, he knew what's best to do in that moment.

As more icicles forms again by Peaches' sides, he took his chances and made a run out of the ruin. He ran and ran and ran, ran as far away as possible. He knew that he had to go back to Herd Valley and talk to the Herd about this urgent situation, knowing that it will only become worse if he doesn't speak out. He can already imagine the disappointment in Ellie's eyes, or maybe Manny's wrath if they know about this, but it was his only option. During his way back, he rewrites his "philosophy" in his head.

**"No plan is the worst plan."**

**END OF PART 1.**


	2. Bad news

The Herd was enjoying their day, as Ellie asked:

"You want to do anything today?" Said Ellie to Manny.

"I don't really know, I mean we are in the most peaceful valley that this world could ever offer to us, so I guess we should enjoy and embrace it." Manny then gave Ellie a kiss, which makes her giggle. It's true, so far the Herd Valley was like a paradise to them, it is peaceful, iit is beautiful, it's remote, which makes the weather cool and sometimes it's warm.

"I can't wait to be a father, Shira" Diego was daydreaming about it, as Shira just look at her mate, giving out a grin.

Crash and Eddie are still trying to have some fun by playing their game rock paper scissors, but since that broke out into a fight so they decided to play tic tac toe...on their sister's back.

"Boys, what are you doing?" Ellie uttered.

"Oh, just playing tic tac toe, behind your back, no big deal" Eddie replied.

The two brothers were later found stuck up on a tree with vines that tied them together.

"Finally, some peace and quiet" Ellie begins to calm down after dealing with her brothers whom acted like toddlers.

That peace and quiet didn't last for long, as Buck storms in yelling "HELLO MAMMALS!" as loud as he can, tearing out the silence and making birds fly out of the trees.

"Master Buck!" Crash shouted. "Sensei Buck!" Eddie yelled louder as they happily sees Buck paying a visit.

"Buck, what are you doing here? And do you have to scream?" asked Manny.

"Oh, I come for a visit with my daughter Browyn, and also, I need a nice way of entering so ye, screaming that is necessary." Buck replied with a smile on his devious face.

"And he invited me!" Roger added.

Seeing only Roger without his sister or father, Ellie was curious.

"Hey Roger, where's your family?" She asked.

"AHhh, they are busy, can't come" The Dino-bird slowly replied with a clear answer.

"Hmm...understandable" she said, as she knows how it feels like.

"Anyways, you guys have any drinks, let us chatter and have fun today!" Buck told the Herd, he's really energetic and excited. Nobody really knew why the weasel was so happy today. Is it caffeine? Is it berries, or even drugs? Nobody really had a clue about it.

"I hope Buck isn't attracting any other animals to us." Ellie whispered to Manny.

"Well, he's Buckminster, the crazed weasel from the world right under us, what do you expect from him?" Manny laughed his wife's question off.

And so, they chattered all together, sharing stories, telling fairy tales and nonsense, and give out advice to each other (Sid's advice was unfortunately rejected by mostly everyone other than Buck). They were just generally having fun.

It was all fun and games until Manny spotted a black mammoth in the distance. The mammoth is running straight into them at full speed.

"Ellie? Guys? Is that who I think it is" Manny asked the Herd and his friends, as if he can already tell who it is charging to them.

"Stranger? AHH! STRANGER DANGER!" Sid panicked, Ellie calmed him down saying: "Sid, don't be silly, it's Julian!"

"HEY Julian! You come to join us?" Buck asked.

Julian arrived at the meet-up, not being able to catch his breath, a question was being drilled into him by literally everyone:

"WHERE'S PEACHES?"

"That's the REASON why I'm here!" Julian said that like it was his last words.

Manny not seeing Peaches anywhere, being panic and angry at the same time, asked Julian

"Where is she?! What have you done?! You promised you'd keep her SAFE! You MADE that vow when both of you leave! NOW WHERE IS SHE?!" Manny was literally a storm in Julian's eyes, Ellie comes to calm Manny down, Buck whispered to his pumpkin daughter:"Don't look honey, anger is a bad personality." and then proceed to cover the entire pumpkin.

"I'm...sorry" Julian squeezed those words out, everyone around was in shock hearing those words from his mouth.

Ellie calmed Julian down, he had already started to cry. Manny's wellbeing is breaking down, as he shows clear signs of distress.

"Julian, calm down, tell me what happened" Ellie said that with a smooth voice. Which gives Julian enough confidence and bravery to tell everyone the terrifying detail:

"A spirit in the form of a...glo..wing ici-cle has taken control over her." He struggled to let those words out of his mouth and his mind, he started to tear up again. He can't even believe in his own testimony.

Everyone was confused yet also shocked about what Julian said, However, no one noticed that Buck had the most dramatic reaction after that. Buck dropped his coconut he was about to take a sip from. His eyes open wide, and he jumped straight to Julian trunks, like he was about to wrangle the mammoth.

"Say the entire thing that you just said in the span of 4 seconds from the past again." He said that with a scary undertone.

"A spirit in the form of a glowing icicl-"

"STOP! A what? Spell THAT OUT!"

"S..-P..I-R-I-T"

"In the form of a glowing-SPELL THAT OUT!" Buck shouted.

"I-C-I-C-L-E" Julian tears up again because of Buck's pressure.

It was then that Buck emotions blank out, his mouth shaped into an "O", he sit on and then leaned his back on a chair, his muscles completely relaxed, like Julian's words just stole the soul of this dreaded weasel out from its body.

"BUCK? You OKAY?" Manny worried.

"The Frostbite…a spirit that resembles a sealed icicle…" Buck mumbles in horror.

"What?"

"The thing that exist even before the ugly horseshoe crabs! Trillions of years! The thing is even alot mightier and scarier than Rudy himself, not gonna lie."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Manny, Your daughter…"

Manny looks at Buck with his desperate emotions, he can't understand anything about this conversation.

"...is possessed by a piece of icicle that was the curse of the Ice Age, when someone is stabbedbyit,theybecomeitsbody,itthenusesthemtomakeanotherIceAgewhichwillthreatenusallandwillkilluswithchillingtemperatures,we'llfreezetodeath, ,aworldofjustlonelinessandcoldtemperaturesbasicallythe END OF THE WORLD!" Buck said it so fast that he had to take a break to catch his breath.

Before Manny could say anything, he continued: "It's like a parasite that found its host. A spy that had infiltrated a headquarter. A virus that had entered the computer!" as Buck finished his talk.

"What's a computer?" Sid asked with all of his curiousness.

Everyone panicked, While Julian was just looking at the ground, feeling guilty and embarrassed, he was tormenting himself as he assumed "It's because of me that this happened". As Ellie gently pats him on the shoulder and tell him to not think about it.

"Is there anyway we can stop it?" Manny asked Buck.

"There is one way...but you will not and will never like it, and that is to use brute force and pull the icicle out from the body." Buck answered, with a serious tone that he has never said before.

"That sounds like a job for me, I'll do whatever it takes to free my daughter from its controls." Manny said it like he just sworn it to everyone. However, Buck advises him.

"It's no easy task even for the strong, old friend. The longer you take to pull it out, the harder it stays on its host."

That shocked Manny and the rest of the Herd as he starts to lose his mind again. Possum brothers Crash and Eddie stopped whatever they were doing and just completely froze up once Buck said that sentence.

"You'll have to move fast and find her before the icicle becomes too hard to pull out."

"How much time do I have?" Manny intrigued.

"Oh, around 7 days, 2 hours 9 minutes and 39 seconds. 38 seconds, 37 seconds, 36 seco-"

"I get it, alright? You don't really need to do that like last time when we try to stop the asteroid"

"Alright, we better move now, guys you ready?" Manny asked, and was immediately replied:

"**READY!"**

"Wait for us Peaches!"

Before they go, Manny asked Buck:

"You wanna help us again, and this time join our force to help us on this dreaded cold journey?"

"Join forces?" Buck asked in a mischievous way "No, the time for that has not yet come." he replied.

After that, he begins to walk away, everyone was clearly frowning, but before they could say anything or do anything, Buck immediately turned his back again:

"anddddd…..NOW it has so yes, Let's do it together mammals!" he cheered everyone up and joined them.

"You're wasting time, Buck." Diego told.

"Don't worry, I'm not anymore. Now, we need to ask the witnesses. HEY! Kiddo!" He shouted as he look at Julian"

"Oh, yes, the names Julian, I-"

"Okay Julian, where did you last see Peaches?"

"Oh, she was at Ice Valley"

"Well let us move then mammals! Chop chop!"

So, the entire Herd then travel to Ice Valley as fast as possible, trying their best to find the lost possessed mammoth in hopes to free it.

**-****•-**

Scrat found his elusive acorn at the cave after he managed to get off the bird. He was filled with excitement and so he charges right to the acorn, he then attempts to go near the entrance of the cave and carefully checks if the ground is hard enough. He then place it down and was about to stomp on it and begin to bury it, but before he could a piece of icicle launched the acorn upward and barely hits the saber-toothed squirrel. Scrat again in frustration as he screams "AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" but it was quickly silenced as the Frostbitten Peaches looks at him. He hesitates a bit but then tries to stand up and scream at her, only to retreat as he quickly regrets it when she disturbingly screeches at him. He ends up running and Peaches, not being a nice friendly mammoth anymore, tried to launch an icicle at him, but missed, it breaks as it hits the stone walls of the cave. The acorn ended up stuck on top near the roof of the cave, as Scrat struggled to retrieve it by climbing up, and then run as fast as he could from the raging Peaches.

**-****•-**

As they managed to set sail and dispatch themselves safely to Ice Valley, they followed Julian as he leads them to where he had last seen her, shouting their name along the way. The weather was not on their side, it's extremely snowy and their view was very limited by the fog.

"I've got a scent of her, and the cold breeze as well" Shira said.

"Ye, I can feel it too, A scent that is cold but and abnormal." Diego added.

"If that so then she is probably on the run, Go!" as Buck exclaimed.

They ended up going through the cave, and found her foot prints, along with strange frost and snow.

"This must be her, she have left her trail behind." Buck told the Herd as they continued to follow her trails.

"Where is she going and why there?" Ellie asked, as she's getting worried for her sweet little angel.

"Oh, there's no clear destination for them, The Frostbitten is known for just roaming around aimlessly, as their goal is to put down anything in their sight."

"Uber tracker, keep following her" Manny exclaimed as he heard what Buck claims.

"Gotcha"

**-****•-**

The Frostbitten Peaches now walks around without a specific direction, searching for a target. She eventually found her target as she wandered off to Campo de Sid (Sid's old camp) although being destroyed by floods and drifting continents but its remain still managed to make animals visit it, it was rebuilt some time ago by the local animal communities, serving as an attraction for both guests and local.

As the animals play and visit in the area, without noticing the peril, Peaches freely walked into the area, until James the Aardvark, noticed Peaches as she comes near the crowd.

"Hey, is that the big giant mammoth's daughter?" He asked

"Oh, it's Peaches, and looks like she got one of those edgy outlook styles." One of the animals judged Peaches looks, despite the fact that Peaches never wanted to look like that, ever.

As none of them realize that Peaches isn't Peaches anymore, they all run towards her for greetings, completely clueless about the fact that she's a horrific living H.L Mencken quote:

(_Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats)_

She didn't hesitate to form icicles and start to launch them at the animals, they all fall back and run for their fragile lives.

"PEACHES IS TRYING TO MURDER US!" one of the animals shouted, alert the others, as they start to run. The camp soon fall into chaos due to Peaches' thirst for an onslaught.

Ashley the beaver was unfortunately hit by an icicle right a the foot, as it pins her down, she cried in pain as she begged the menacing Frostbitten mammoth for mercy:

"Stop, please, I want to live! Don't do this, PLEASE!" Ashley tried to crawl away but it didn't help at all.

Peaches once again reply everything with her screech or cry.

Before Peaches can deliver a killing blow, a muskox rammed into the mammoth, disorienting her. It then removes the icicle from Ashley's foot by pulling it out with its mouth and carry the beaver away, saving her just in time.

"Thank you for saving me" she blurted that out, after experiencing a near death situation.

"Didn't our parents teach that we must not leave anyone behind?" the friendly muskox politely replied.

**-****•-**

"We'll never find her in these harsh weather conditions!" Manny shouted

"Don't worry Manny, we got a scent of her, and I think we are close." replied Diego

"Mammals! Look at this!" Buck shouted, he noticed an interesting fact.

As they are near Campo de Sid, they found a shocking evidence that proves to them that they are not alone in this wicked journey.

They had found the trails of humanity.

**END OF PART 2**


	3. In search of Alliances

"We found...human footprints?!" Crash and Eddie was in full shock.

Manny remembers the time when he gave a baby back to its kind, and memories were rushing through his mind. The most nostalgic and beautiful memory this old mammoth had ever remembered.

"Pinky." He whispered the name in his head, as the name being to most memorable thing in his mind.

"Maybe we can use them to help us find back Peaches and save her?" Ellie asked Buck, with high hopes.

"What if they're hostile?" Shira argued, as she remembers her disturbing past about the warcrimes that the humans had done to her kind.

Buck asked Manny:

"Manny, we gotta make a choice here. 1. We find the humans and request for backup, or 2. We find Peaches by our own. Choose."

Buck's question puts Manfred away from his thoughts, so he replied with his answer:

"I think let's find-"

_*Loud Screech*_

The screech broke the silence and cut off Manfred's answer, making the Herd on full alert.

"That must have been Peaches!" Julian called it, the screech was iconic enough for him to realized that can only be Peaches.

"It's from my old camp!" Sid shouted "What is my sweetheart doing in there?" He wonders.

"We'll never know if we never come, Manny will definitely pick option 2 if I was him after hearing that, Let's go!" Buck hurries them.

Reaching to the Camp, they saw Peaches in a strange state, She constantly shakes her head around, and ram into things for reasons unknown. The Herd silently watches.

"What is she doing?" Julian whispered, looking at Peaches violently react with her surroundings made him worried.

"I think that she is probably fighting against the spirit that is controlling her body in a frame of mind. I used to do that when the Bucks in my head don't listen to me. Works almost every time!" Buck replied with a silent maniac laugh, but he immediately return to his serious mood after that.

Manny however, charges straight to Peaches, calling her name, he can't keep his heart from telling his mind on what do do.

"PEACHES!" He shouted.

The call caught her attention, as she turns into an active state, she looked at Manny with her wide frosted eyes and cried out loudly at him, ready to engage combat.

"PEACHES, Don't worry! Daddy's here!" Manny not knowing that's no longer Peaches, trying to use is soft side to confront her.

"NO MANNY, Don't!" Buck shouted as Manny gets closer to Peaches

Icicles were formed, as she screeches, Manny didn't realize what was going on, but he slowed down.

"Fuzzball?"

"MANNY! GET OUT OF THERE!" Ellie yelled, everyone was either looking at the scene in fear or covered their eyes.

Without any warning, the icicles launched straight to Manny. Manny panicked as he swings his tusk hoping for protection and blockage. Some hit the tusks, but some ended up on his trunks or near his eyes, making him slip and collapse on the ice floor

Manny was there groaning out the pain, as Peaches came closer.

"Pea...Peaches?!" He was shocked to she his daughter in this state.

It was then he realized what was going on, as Peaches scream, she was about to end Manny's life as she formed a long icicle, she grabs it with her trunk and used it as a spear.

"Peaches!"

Luckily, before she could spear Manny's skull, Buck jumped in and saved Manny, breaking the spear by throwing Rudy's tooth at it.

"Get UP MANNY!" he told Manny "Oh and hi there, like your new body?" he mocks the Frostbitten as he swiftly picks up his blade and gave it a smirk.

This probably made whatever's controlling Peaches angry, as Peaches heavily stomps down, ice shards broke through the ground and nearly hits Buck if he didn't block it with his knife.

"Well played, but it's time for us to go. Catch you later!" He ended it with a smile as he used his famous "Weasel Vanish" trick by throwing gas on the ground. Peaches screeches and stomps on the spot where Buck was once there, only to find out that he's gone with the smoke screen.

"Man look at our master go!" said Crash, the possums still admired Buck with all of their respect.

Manny was being taken care of by Ellie as she cleaned his wounds and remove the icicles carefully as Buck swung back to the Herd's hiding spot.

"What in the world was that!" Manny shockingly asked Buck.

"Didn't I told you last time we were chattering together?" Buck replied angrily "Pull yourself together Manny! She's no longer your cute little mammoth girl, but a cursed spirit! And it's either you fight back, or you die." exclaimed Buck, he ignores the fact that Manny got emotionally carried away.

Never had anyone seen Buck taking things seriously like this, everyone thinks that this probably was something worth being extremely cautious with.

"Manny, we'll do this, we'll save her, okay?" Ellie tries to confront Manny.

"Well how are we gonna do it if right now it's nearly impossible to even get near her?" Manny whined, as an encounter with his Frostbitten daughter was already nightmare fuel to him.

"Well…" Buck pauses for a while. "In unlikely times like this we should find some unlikely allies to help us." Buck said it out with all of his honesty. The Herd will certainly need support on this quest, as this is highly dangerous.

"What do you mean then?" Shira intrigued.

"Oh, it's really simple, we are going to find the humans and request their support." Buck casually replied Shira, who was looking at him in disbelief and thought that the weasel must be joking.

"What?" The Herd thinks that it's not a good idea.

"Listen, it's our easiest yet only way to save this dire situation, do you really want to lose this battle before we even fight?" Buck asked the Herd, being as serious as he can. Since he knows that right now it's a Do-or-Die situation.

Diego smiled to Buck, and he turns back to the Herd, he still remember Buck's rules the last time they outran dinosaurs:

"Buck's rule number one guys, rule number one."

**-****•-**

Ashley and the muskox was heading to North to find a shelter. The sky was pretty foggy and dark. Ashley's body temperature is drastically decreasing, things look kinda gloomy for the pair.

"It's cold out here, I think I'm gonna black out." whined Ashley.

"Don't you dare leave on me right now, We'll make it together" replied the muskox.

During that time they spotted a lot of disturbing things:

"Is that an animal?" Ashley asked as she sees a figure in the distance.

"Maybe it is! Let's go, maybe they'll help us!" The muskox ran at full speed to find out what the figure is.

It is a figure of a deer, but it's completely frozen.

"Woah...What happened here?" The muskox wondered, they had never seen things like this before.

They spotted an icicle shanked on its back.

"This deer was probably...killed." the muskox confirms that information which scared Ashley.

"Uhhhh...you may not want to look out at the horizon." Ashley added, as they were both surprised once they saw things that can only be seen in nightmares.

There are a large amount of animals that were froze up, they looked like statues, all with an icicle right at their back, some at the belly, some at the neck, some even on the head, and on other parts of the body.

This sight really scared both of the animals.

"I think we should go back" Ashley whispered to the muskox.

"Ye I think we should…" the muskox suddenly paused, both of the animals suddenly drown in fears after what they have just notice from far away.

"No..no..NO! Go back, go BACK NOW! QUICK!" as Ashley yelled and pulled the horns of the "Still-as-Stone" muskox who was too scared to do anything.

The thing they had seen might be the most scariest thing right now in their current conditions and mental state, or it could be worse, as the last thing they might ever see in their lives.

There was a figure that's moving from a distance, and it resembles a young female mammoth, with an icicle floating besides it.

**-****•-**

The Herd once again go on a journey to find the humans. With two sabers that can sense and smell they easily find a human campsite, despite harsh winter conditions.

"Stop!" Buck tell the Herd as they get near the campsite, he heard something.

"Cool, we've found it, now what?" Eddie uttered.

"Well just calm down okay? I'm tryna find a way to-"

Before Buck can finish his sentence off, a human wearing a coat made out of leather was already pointing his spear at the Herd, showing aggressive behavior.

Buck jumps in front of the Herd with his knife out, as he attempts to protect the Herd, this surprised the human in front of them, but he didn't stand back.

"Hey, easy there buddy, we are just looking for help" Manny told the human, he didn't think that the human could understand his language, like the time they had encountered 1 in the past, but he thinks that it might worth a shot.

He suddenly loosen his grip on spear. But he approaches closer, he showed no signs of fear as he slowly close the gap.

"Listen, we don't want any trouble okay?" Manny added

"If you don't like us then we'll go, no need to resolve in violence alright?" Diego shouted, as his fear increases time by time.

"We are fine right? We're fine, we done want any trouble we don't want to die!" Sid panics. Fear filled in the sloth's eyes as he hopes the human was actually the baby they used to care and protect from a long time ago.

Sid's thought however proved to be right, as the human dropped its spear intentionally.

"What?" Diego was confused why the human did that.

It was then that the human remove his hood and reveals his face. A face that only the original Sub-zero heroes from the start that led to today can recognize it from its details. Despite decades of not seeing each other, they still remember who it was.

Everyone was confused, but only the trio speaks up from what they are seeing right at the moment.

"Pinky?" The trio asked it at the same time. At this point they exactly knew who it was, and nothing was happier then to see him.

"Manny? Sid? Diego?" The human responded. Although being a short response, but it lifted tons of weight from the Herd's shoulders, especially the trio's.

"PINKY!" the trio shouted, as tears of happiness dripped from their eyes.

In that moment they run into each other and give out hugs.

"I told you that I will not forget about you!" Manny said as he smiles happily, he succeeded in keeping his words true.

"We have you been in the past years Pinky?" Sid asked.

"And look at you all grown up!" Diego added.

"You guys made my dreams come true!" Roshan replied to them.

The Herd was confused, as they are still waiting for answers.

"Oh and this must be your new family and friends?" Roshan asked.

"I call them my Herd" Manny proudly replied.

"Can we just have a little introduction so we can understand what's going on?" Buck asked, the weasel doesn't like the fact that he doesn't know things.

"Oh, no worries, come settle yourself in this camp, I'll tell you everything, needless to say, without these 3 guys, I wouldn't have been here today." Roshan told Buck.

Roshan ended up telling his name and his stories on how he grew up and the never-forget adventure of him with the trio to everyone. They all sat around the campfire, as emotions ran freely from everyone, the feeling was truly beyond sensational.

"Why do you live alone in this place now?" Sid asked Roshan

"Oh, I decided that when I grow up, I wanted to set out and find you guys. But I didn't realize it took this long, but in the end, I've found you!" He replied "Now, lemme ask you this, why are you guys out here?"

This question however took the Herd a long time to reply:

"Well…" Manny spoke up "We are trying to save my daughter, Peaches."

"Yikes, what happened to her, the bad guys took them away?"

"Not exactly, she was controlled by the Frostbite, The Spirit that resembles a glowing icicle." Buck slowly replied.

Roshan suddenly tighten his hands into fists. He knew it's "business" time.

"After all these years, it managed to find its first victim? How odd." he replied with a weird undertone.

"What?" Manny asked.

"Long story, but to make it short. It was locked by us, we imprisoned it in an underground ruin. We know it was extremely dangerous if it breaks out. It's because me and my former hunting group witnessed its power capability and all the things it could have caused. We did our best to hide it from the outside world, and now here we are knowing that it was found by a young female mammoth..." Roshan angrily replied, he had his concerns.

"Well, my daughter was quite an explorer herself with her husband" as worried laughter came from Manny. He was trying to joke it off to reduce tension, but it didn't seem to help.

"Roshan, can you please help us?" Ellie ask Roshan as if she was begging him. "Peaches is really important to us" As she's determined to not lose her daughter.

"Well, I'm afraid to tell you that the thing is not a force to be wrecking with. People have died trying to harness its powers, and it is incredibly hard to stand against it." as Roshan replies, everyone was really sad to hear such description about it, to the point where Sid thinks that this is over and they won't be able to see his niece again.

"...But with that being said" the human continued where he had left off "I should have return you guys a favour for your deeds." Roshan looks at Manny, Sid, and Diego as he bravely announce his decision.

**"I'm in, we got to destroy that thing once and for all."**

The Herd cheers as they received support from a human.

**END OF PART 3**


	4. READY!

"Before we go, we need to get ourselves ready" Roshan announced, as he knew that going to fight this thing with bare hands isn't going to end well.

"How and with what?" as most of the Herd members wondered.

"I know a little bit about crafting" claimed Roshan "Maybe I can get you guys geared up before this. Buck! You'll come with me, you look like the guy who knows stuff" he happily smiled as he invited Buck.

"Well, my pleasure my primal friend!" Buck accepts his request, it feels like Buck and Roshan were BFFs from the begining.

"What about us?" Manny intrigued.

"Just stay at camp, don't worry! We'll be back ASAP!"

"We don't have much time, you two better be back quick and be safe" Manny told them, as his overprotective personality once again worry on things.

Roshan and Buck ventured off into the wild to find resources for crafting, while the rest stays back and have a bit of a conversation.

"So, what are we finding?" Buck questions Roshan.

"Oh, just some wood, vines, some rocks, and maybe a shell" Roshan reply made Buck raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Why is that?"

"Oh, you'll know when we get back to camp." Roshan just smirked at him and told the weasel to follow his instructions.

It took them half an hour to pick up some stones from a small pit that resembles a mine, stole a shell from a Glyptodon, outrun said Glyptodon, pick up some more stones from the wild, cut down some vines, again outrun a wild pack of sabers (Buck ended up mocking the pack as him and Roshan successfully escape), get some water, and gather some wood. None of these activities had pushed Buck or Roshan to the limits, as they just casually strike off each activity one-by-one off the list.

"That was fun! Let's do it again one day" Buck told Roshan as they went back to camp.

"Hey you guys made it back alive! Now what" Diego asked.

"This will take some time, but it's better to fully prepare ourselves then not to." Roshan replied, as he spit on his hands and get to work

With the help of the Herd, he made out a helmet for Manny using the shell stolen from the Glyptodon (resembles the shell that Manny used as a water bucket in _Dawn of the Dinosaurs_), he didn't forget to carve 2 holes as eye sockets for Manny to see.

"Hey do I look stupid with this thing on?" He curiously asked, to prove that he still have some dignity and care about how he looks.

"Oh Manny, you look exactly like the last time you fell off a cliff" Ellie giggled, she still remembers that little happy accident like it was engraved into her mind.

"...!" Manny had nothing to say about it, he admitted that it looks stupid, but he knows it's for protection. Manny also received a plate of wood to use as a shield, very basic yet it provides a good cover. Roshan then began to make something for the possums. He took the stones and sharpen it as mini blades, then tied each blade into individual sticks with vines, making simple tiny stone swords for the possum brothers. Upon receiving the swords, they freaked out and immediately run to Buck as if they are showing him their greatest achievements.

"Look Buck! We got weapons like you now!" Eddie screamed out. Both of the possums happily knelt and raise the swords with two hands for Buck to see, he quickly inspects through them.

"So this is how modern technology feels like" they run their hands through their stone blades in amazement, completely ignore the fact that their swords are just sharpened stone rods bound to sticks with vines. With that being said, they had never got their hands on such things before.

"Heh...You two are starting to meet my requirements." claimed Buck, as he looks at his apprentices with somewhat proud in his eyes.

Roshan gives Sid an unlit torch.

"Pinky?! What am I supposed to do with this? Why don't I get to have anything cool like Manny or Crash and Eddie have?" Sid gets really confused, as if he feels like he was discriminated.

"Didn't you used to say that you are Lord of the Flames?" Roshan politely replied to Sid.

"Oh and don't forget this" Manny added, as he passed the Bag of flints that Sid once gave him into his claws.

This made Sid give out an "aahhh…", Sid knows exactly what he had to do with his items.

Julian was given a plate of wood like Manny to use as something to cover himself.

Ellie was given two coils of vines as ropes to carry around, Roshan thinks that it might be useful. Diego and Shira didn't get anything, but was planned to do something with the vines that Ellie carries around. Since tasks with ropes require speed and agility, both sabers seems to fit in the job well.

After everyone was given out roles and tasks, alongside with their tools, they finally set out to find The Frostbitten.

"This is going down is history" Roshan seemed promising about his words.

**-****•-**

Ashley and the muskox turned back and head South to outrun whatever's coming to get them. The view is incredibly foggy, sub-zero temperatures and along with the dark-surrounding environment, this makes them extremely in panic as their adrenaline rushed inside the two animals.

"Faster, FASTER!" yelled Ashley, as fear completely submerged her mind, she started to randomly scream, and tears slowly drip from her eyes.

"I'm trying here! Now would you just calm down so I ca-" before it could finish its sentence, the muskox ran into an animal "statue", breaking it into pieces, as it knocked out the ox, and leave the beaver stunned.

"Owww…" Ashley was dazed for a short period of time before getting back up again.

Ashley crawls to her fainted muskox friend.

"Come..come on, g...g-get up, we...hav-e to go..fa..fas-fast! This...i-is no plac-"

**_*Screech*_**

The thing managed to catch up on the helpless pair of animals.

"Wake...wake up!, com-come on...D-d-Don't...leave me here..I-I'm scared..Pleas-please! There...something..-o-out there!" Ashley was losing her sanity to fear as she started to hug the unconscious ox. She can feel someone, or something was right behind them. The screeching sound was now accompanied with the sound of ice crackling in the air.

She slowly turned her back to see what's behind them...

**-****•-**

"I think she's at Glacier Pass, I can feel it" Diego said as he can feel the chilling weather getting colder the more they are near the said location, he is definitely certain about it, as the atmosphere is cloudy and misty, like a setup from a horror movie, with the cold breeze scent that they manage to catch on, there's no way this is the wrong way, the sabers seems sure about it.

"Looks like she had went through here." Roshan says as he spots a bird, frozen on a tree branch. The bird of course also had an iconic icicle stuck on its body.

"No way...this can't be real...this is not good, not good." Manny tries to deny the fact that his daughter did such hideous things, but that only made the fact go ballistic into his mind. Ellie eventually comes to confront him.

"This is not our sweet little angel's work, It's the spirit's, alright Manny? You know that we are here together doing this for her." Ellie tries her best to stop Manny from being stressful, as she knew this has been hard for him.

"This marks that we are very close to her. Guys, stay together" as Roshan announced. They've made it through the pass, as the environment becomes foggy and temperature decreased. It is still daylight but the clouds have already covered the Sun, making the 7 AM daylight looks like 5 PM afternoon.

"Goodbye nature's sunshine." as Julian murmured when they entered the zone.

"Isn't sunshine nature's-" Manny was hit on the shoulder by Ellie's trunk when he reacted to Julian's common sense.

"He knows sweetie, he knows." Ellie whispered to Manny.

"We got more trails" As Roshan points out the hundreds of frozen animals in the background.

"EDDIE HOLD ME, I'M SCARED!" as Crash jumped into Eddie's hold, Eddie instantly threw Crash down in the snow, printed out a possum figure on the snow as well.

"Woah…" as Sid noticed a frozen animal pair, consists of a young beaver hugging an unconscious ox on the ground. As the ox had an icicle stick onto its back, while the beaver had one on its forehead. He had that chilling feel running down his spine as he saw that, and he immediately ran back and stay close to the Herd without saying a word.

"Let's go back..." He murmured to Manny

"We had already come this far, Sid." Manny told Sid as if he wanted to punch the sloth. "Going back means giving up. Are you giving up on yourself, your friends, and your niece?" Manny asked Sid seriously as Sid just heavily gulped. He looked away from the mammoth's eyes, but then had enough bravery to stare at it again and say "No."

"That's the spirit." Manny commended Sid. "We're falling behind, move."

They continued their way forward to North to find her, until Julian spotted something.

"Peaches?" as Julian called out, he saw a figure of a young mammoth.

"Shh...be quiet okay?" as Roshan whispered, he told them to slowly sneak up on the figure, as they get close, they realized that it's just a snow mammoth, built by something, in the middle of a bunch of frozen animals.

"It's just a snow figure." exclaimed Manny, but he noticed that it had facial details and hair style exactly like Peaches.

"It looks exactly like Peaches." Julian commended on the snow figure. "Whoever builds this must have been a professional snowman builder." he added.

"This feels like someone's territory" Ellie felt concerned.

"Someone who had an interest in building snowmen, killing things with icicles, freeze them up and make statues? Who would be deranged enough to do that?" Diego added his concerns on Ellie's.

Sid comes near the statues and touches it, and it feels insanely cold, but he feels sensational.

"Woah, this thing really feels like Peaches." as he laughed that off… Only to see everyone backing up away.

"Uhhh...SID!" Buck shouted.

Sid turns around to see the spot he touches gleams with rays of white blue-ish light from it. The snow layer starts to crack out, and then falls off the figure.

Peaches wakes up from her idle state.

"AAAAAAAHHH!" Sid runs away as the figure starts to move, revealing that the snow sculpture is Peaches. The icicle on her back now shines, with mist coming out from it. She cried and screeched out loudly at the Herd.

"There's your answer for your questions in front of you." Roshan responds to Ellie and Diego after Peaches was woken up by Sid.

"Battle stations!" as Buck called out loudly, the Herd prepares for possible "impact".

Peaches screamed and cried out, as Manny and Julian raise their shields up. Ellie stood back, while Crash and Eddie drew out their newly made swords and stand besides Buck, as Buck also had Rudy's tooth drawn. Diego and Shira both take one ends of the vine coils Ellie carried, as they ready to charge forward at full speed. Sid hides behind one of the frozen animal "statues", and Roshan tighten his grip on his trusty spear.

This might be the Herd's only chance on this. As the icicle on Peaches' back starts to mist an emit light, they knew that thing had been on her back for quite some time now.

_**END OF PART 4.**_


	5. Trouble at Geotopia

Peaches started to summon her icicles, their sharp tips pointing straight to the Herd. The Herd carefully came closer to her with full caution, as they kept their guard on. She was about to launch her icicles, as tension went on. The Herd knew that they must always be one step ahead of her in order for all of them to stay alive.

Suddenly, she dropped them, and started to shake her head around and behaves like the last time at Campo de Sid. She starts to cry out, but it feels soft, unlike other times.

The Herd stops for a moment to observe this behaviour. Manny took his helmet off as he can't see much with it on. Witnessing his daughter struggling with what's happening now made the old mammoth feel devastated. But that lit a spark of hope inside him and among others.

Peaches suddenly stopped shaking her head, and turned her head to look at the Herd, they realized that the Frostbitten had never had this kind of behaviour before. Her left pupil has some part of green in it. As the Herd saw that, they started to slowly lower their items down, much to their surprise, that's not all of it.

"**Ḍ̸͓͌̓ȁ̶̘̼d̶̡͕̽́?̶̻̍̌ "**

The entire Herd was left dead silent after what they had just heard.

The Frostbitten mammoth spoke its first word after days of being controlled. It sounds distorted and corrupted, but the word "Dad" was pronounced clearly enough. Manny's eye opened as wide as it can after he heard that. The Herd was shocked in silence.

"Peaches!" Manny shouts in happiness as his Frostbitten daughter spoke to him in such a situation. He didn't hesitate to grasp this chance.

"Manny! Wait!" Ellie shouted as she meant "be careful" to Manny, but to her dismay. He came running near to Peaches, without a second thought. Manny was once again, driven by his heart as he did what it says instead of listening to his mind, he can't resist the chance knowing that at any moment his daughter is back.

And that is his biggest weakness.

"Ḍ̸͓͌̓ȁ̶̘̼-" Peaches tried to respond, but she was clearly cut off, as she once again shook her head around briefly and then screeched as she looked at the incoming Manny. Her left eye turned into that blue-ish white. She returned hostile before Manny could even come near her.

"Peaches, No!" He shouted, Manny saw his daughter lose her control and he quickly slows down, but he was already in dangerously close proximity to Peaches, he became completely vulnerable as he didn't even have his helmet on or his shield ready since he stowed them on his back. Peaches readied one of her icicles when Manny came closer.

"Manny get back!" as Julian comes to save him by pulling him back. Despite having a chance to kill Manny, Peaches didn't even attempt to attack. She just looked at him, strongly turned her back, hid the icicle, and ran into the misty surroundings. The light from the icicle on her back slowly fades away as she got deeper into the fog, and disappeared completely.

"No...no, no, no, no, NO!" Manny stuttered and grunted, he then started to angrily pummel the snow. He thought that everything is over, only to realize the reality bashed into his view. He was in a huge disbelief.

"She...either...managed to fight back for a short moment or it was a bluff attempt to lure you closer, Manny." Buck made an assumption, as he witnessed Peaches' eye go green. Buck really tried to think outside the box and proceed with the images of whatever just happened.

"I think I'll go with the fact that she was able to fight the spirit in a frame of mind, if it was a trick she would have already killed you when you're right at her. I was right all along! Probably."

Buck proudly claims, with his proposed supporting detail, he knew that Peaches can fight back, and that confirmed the fact that hope is not yet frail.

"And all she needs is just some help." Roshan exclaimed, with all of what they had studied from the Frostbitten mammoth for a short amount of time. The Herd knew what exactly they'll have to do next.

"Sabers! You mind tracking her again? We need to know where she's heading to next." Roshan asked for their guides. As they once again lost her, the sabers however can still sense her and still had her track. They started to follow the track for a while before Shira paused for a moment as she made a claim, proving to be where Peaches was heading to next, but she was quite shocked with the results her nose gathered.

"Geotopia…" she mumbled.

"What?!" as Diego asked her how did she knew about that with just a few scents from the lost mammoth

"She's heading to Geotopia. How did I know? She's going East, Where the geyser is. What is near the geyser? Geotopia." She strongly believes her instinct, because there should be no reason why the mammoth would be heading there for, as its goal is supposed to kill and erase all traces of life as many as it could, Geotopia seemed like to be a high value target in the Frostbitten's eyes.

Diego still doubts it, as he asked.

"Geotopia is ages away from Ice Valley, there's no way she could travel that fast, especially being a mammoth. Besides, she didn't completely wipe out everything in Ice Valley, there's also Snow Valley being next to it, so even if she did why won't she go to Snow Valley?"

"Not if she's possessed from a deranged spirit that used her as its body. How could she be able to travel from Sid's old camp to Glacier Pass, and managed to go on an onslaught, freezing and killing hundreds of the local animals within less than a day? That must be something related to the icicle itself. If it took her less than a day to travel that amount of distance, then it might take her 1 and a quarter of a day to reach Geotopia. Why not Snow Valley? Both of the Valleys have less diversity than Geotopia even if they are combined all together, with her ability to do that there's no reason why she would waste her time on such places." Using her knowledge from her past experiences with hunting packs, Shira logically answered Diego's question hands down and left her mates in silence. They discovered one more ability that the Frostbitten can do, fast travel.

"Man I didn't realize she had gotten that smart. We remember the first time we saw her as a redundant pirate." Diego silently whispered to Manny.

"I can hear that" Shira once again surprised Diego, dissuading him from further talks behind her back with Manny.

"Geotopia...that's in Herd Valley!" Manny was shocked. They realized that their home was its next target. It looks like luck is not on their side-

"Well then we might have to move fast!" exclaimed Buck "Before she took more liv..."

_***Snoring***_

-and so is time.

"What was that?" Manny asked as the Herd turned around to look at Sid.

He was sleeping as he leaned on the statue, it's been two days since they had ever taken a rest.

"Maybe we should set a camp and stop for a while. We won't be able to do anything without energy" as Roshan smirked at the sleeping Sid. "It's best that we lift off some of our worries away and get ready for a better start tomorrow."

**-****•-**

The remains of Geotopia was still able to house the geotopians and keep their youths after the break down. Rebuilds with stones and quartz were made as for replacement of the walls and roofs. Which makes Geotopia a wonderful magical sightseeing destination which attracts hundreds of animal visitors per day by the time it got widely known.

Brooke was laying on a magnetic floating crystalized rocks that floats around the remained Geoslides after the collapse of the utopian place. She wonders if Sid is actually okay right now, she's getting more concerned the more she thinks about Sid. The weather was a lot colder than before, but Brooke kinda likes it.

"Oh darling, where have you been?" she simply asked, as she slowly closed her eyes to think.

Before her eyelids completely closed her eyes, a drop of fluid dripped on her face, as she saw a strange patch of brown with little cyan on the pink/purple crystal walls of Geotopia. She quickly opened her eyes to see what is that, and she discovered something extremely vile.

One of Geotopia's former crystal warden unicorns, Bubbles, was pinned on the crystalized wall, like a sticky note on an office task board, as the blood that's dripping from the bloody mess started to dry up.

"Bubbles?!" She slowly approached the cooling corpse of the unicorn.

An icicle impaled this unfortunate being on its chest, at its left rib cage and through its lungs.

Brooke was horrified as she saw the dead unicorn, its limbs were stiff and its faded pupils are dilated. She instantly fell back and tried to stay calm after coming to the terms that the life of Bubbles is completely drained out from her body.

Brooke then heard a high pitched diabolical laughter, it echoed through Geotopia.

"I need to tell this to Llama!" As she quickly surfed on the crystal platform at full speed to the fountain of Youth, which is Llama's new spot now.

"Llama? Where are you? Llama, we got in a bad, bad situation!"

Llama popped his head from the Fountain, looking at Brooke.

"Brooke, what do you want now? I told you not to disturb me while I'm submerging my entire body under the fountain! I need to retain my youth daily, okay?!" The Llama didn't know what was happening in Geotopia yet.

"There's a murderer in Geotopia righ-" Brooke was cut off by Shangri Llama's ignorance. He spitted at Brooke, as she ducked down.

"What? Murderer? Hah, it's not April fools, Brooke! Don't try to make me laugh, you're wasting my youthful times, sloth!"

After scolding the sloth, Shangri Llama noticed that nobody had caught his spit, it ended up on the ground, completely pulped up. He started to noticed the abnormality around, but didn't mind much.

Brooked tried one more time warning the Llama.

"Bubbles is dead and did you not hear the creepy laughter echoing in here moments ago!?"

"Oh don't talk nonsense! Stop tryin-"

Llama finally caught his attention on Brooke's words as an agonizing scream went through Geotopia, and this time the Llama did clearly hear that.

"See!? I told you Llama, probably someone lost their life again because of you. Now please!" the benevolent sloth shouted at the Llama, begging for him to realize the situation right now.

The Llama suddenly froze up because of fear, he hid his head in the fountain again.

"Shangri, we have to evacuate everyone quickly!" As Brooke advised him, he popped his head up again and he was in refusal.

"For what, to get us all slaughtered?! What if the murderer's out at the entrance, somewhere under us, on top of us! Or maybe it's invisible and is right behind you!" as he replied in fear, the fountain suddenly started to get cold, as Brooke slowly backed up when she can also feel the cold breeze radiating from the fountain and horrifyingly added into his sentence.

"O-or...mayb-maybe it's right BEHIND YOU!" Brooke shouted as Peaches suddenly rose from the waters right behind Shangri Llama, as Llama turned his head around. Peaches was already holding a long icicle staff as a melee weapon with her trunk, as she once again screeched and laughed disturbingly at them.

"AAAAHH!" He jumped out of the water and into Brooke's arms, as Peaches walked out from the fountain. Her grip on the icicle staff tightened as she creepily stared at them.

Llama was quite scared after what happened, but after looking at the not so vast-sized mammoth, he jumped right in front of it and mocked it.

"So this is the murderer you've been talking about? You really need to get your brain checked, you stupid sloth!" as he turned to Peaches, and spitted on her face, expecting her to dodge it or at least be disgusted if it hit her.

To his dismay however, Peaches didn't even flinch, despite the fact that the mammoth's forehead is covered in spit.

"What…" his facial expression clearly changed… from being cocky to being terrorized, he instantly regret his decision.

Peaches looked at him angrily. She wiped off the spit with her trunk and raised her weapon. She ended up brutally batting the arrogant Llama away with the icicle staff into the distance, he went on screaming as he flew further away from Geotopia.

Brooke was looking at Llama flying away at the distance, when she had to focus on Peaches again. Peaches stowed her staff by dispersing it into the air and summoned her sharp icicles, pointing at Brooke as she screeched at her.

"Woah, easy here frosty." She slowly backed away until she was at the edge of the cliff. Peaches then slowly closed the gap fom her.

Cornered by the Frostbitten mammoth. She had to choose either to jump off or try to evasively run away from the menacing mammoth, but she thinks she can't because of how risky it is and she might die in both options.

She thought that her time had come, and she just knelt in front of the mammoth, held her eyes with her claws, accepting her fate. She tried to remember all the things she love and likes, as the screeches gets closer and closer.

"**Goodbye Sid."** She was whispering it out but screaming it in her head, hoping that it was a miracle that Sid could hear her last words.

Her thoughts about death were going around her mind as Peaches' icicles rose higher, ready to launch into her, as it would impale the sloth in the process. Brooke really thought it was over for her.

Until suddenly the thoughts disappeared when suddenly she heard a loud feminine scream, it sounded more like a battlecry instead.

"**Yabba Dabba DOO!" **followed by a physical impact sound and a sharp screech that signalized pain. She opened her eyes and saw Ellie standing in front of her. Peaches was against the walls far away.

Ellie saved her just in time by swinging herself into action and gave Peaches a powerful kick to her side.

"I told you those vines are useful" Roshan voice can be heard from bottom to up the top, as the Herd slowly climbed up and joined Ellie and Brooke by their sides.

"Brooke!" Sid came to give his mate a good hug, as he once again reunited with her.

"I thought I've lost you!" she started to tear up. "I was so scared Sid"

"You will not be scared anymore, as I am here to protect you!" Sid promised Brooke, as a compensation for his absence.

"Eh-hem...You mean 'we'" Diego corrected Sid.

"Hey, both of you ardent and frantic sloths, it's not really the time to get emotional now." As Manny reminded Sid that they still had a threat to deal with.

Peaches now had nowhere to go or run, she is now surrounded against the wall. Although being outnumbered but it seems that the spirit controlling her refused to give up. She screeched out and screamed at the Herd in distress, the icicle on her back started to get luminous and misty.

The Herd once again in battle stations, Sid this time took out a piece of flint and rock, he ignited his torch as he looked at the Frostbitten with all of his anger, like the icicle was his arch-enemy.

"**There is nowhere to run now, you possessive icicle!" **Sid bellowed as he hold the torch firmly, ready to engage.

**END OF PART 5.**


	6. Broken down

"**FACE ME, THE TRUE FIRE LORD IF YOU DARE!" **Sid charged right towards Peaches without any fear lingering in him.

"Sid! You're gonna get yourself killed!" Manny tried to quickly catch up with him in case things went wrong.

Peaches launched 3 icicles towards Sid at the same time. Brooke was afraid that he might hurt himself as he relentlessly went forward when the icicles about to hit him if he doesn't slow down or anything.

Sid did the unexpected. He did a sudden deft tumble, dodging all 3 incoming icicles that were heading straight to the sloth's head.

"Not today, you mindless ice cube!" He shouted then swiftly climbed up on Peaches back by boosting himself up with her tusks. Peaches then tried to thrash out hoping to get the sloth off. Sid was actually determined to end this once and for all as he heavily slammed down the burning torch on the misty icicle, and it reacts violently with the heat, emitting out vapor.

Peaches can be heard screaming as she can feel the burning pain. She blindly launched icicles around, trying to hit Sid, but they all scattered as Manny and Julian had to stay at the front to block the incoming projectiles from hitting the Herd members.

"I will do it, I will SAVE YOU!" Sid got ferocious as he put his claw on the icicle and tried to rip it out from Peaches' back.

Everyone had high hopes that Sid could pull that off. He was clearly winning against the frosty wild mammoth...

...until the panicking Peaches rammed her back on one of the crystal walls, as it violently crushed Sid, he immediately blacked out from the crushing blow as his pupils rolled back into his head. He 'liquified' into a weird mess and started to groan and painfully moan, requesting for help.

The impact the Peaches caused made Geotopia start to shake. The place once again started to slightly crumble down, now they face falling hazards that posed a threat on all of them.

"Hey?! Is it that time of the day again when things tremendously go downhill?" Gladys, Sid's granny once again with her crazed mind started to casually wonder about the anomaly.

There were horrified screams of the animals inside when it shook up.

"Told you, Sid is a screw-up" Diego exclaimed while he tried to outrun the icicles launching at him and the Herd.

It seemed that Sid's failed attempt to pull out the icicle managed to enraged Peaches, as it violently gleamed and misted, there's also a slight crack on top of the icicle now.

The creature then summoned her spear and was about to put the crushed sloth out of its misery, while icicles were constantly launching at the Herd. Julian came to help by knocking Peaches off with his shield. He picked up Sid on his back as he carefully approaches Peaches.

"We need to evacuate this place, it may not last long!" as Brooke hurries to Herd to evacuate every resident and visitor from the collapsing asteroid. They split up into each area to help evacuate the animals inside.

"Everyone go help the others. Leave her to me, it's because of me that it started. Now, I'll end it." Julian bellowed for the Herd, as he was not going to repeat it for a second time.

Julian then threw Sid to the Herd so they could safely evacuate him, while he faced his wife, who was taken by the ruthless spirit.

"Make it out alive from this. You have to." as Manny wished him goodluck. He knew that Julian is trying to deem himself for his mistakes by saving her, or at least stop her rampage on Geotopia.

Julian gave Manny a strong nod as they split up and work on their tasks. Peaches picked up her spear again and Julian raised his guard on.

"Before we fight, I want to say that I am deeply sorry for every time I hurt you." Julian said he nervously grinned before they engage into battle. Peaches however didn't seem to care much. She screamed at him in hatred.

**-****•-**

The rest of the Herd quickly led and escorted the animal visitors out of the asteroid, before things started to fall on eachother.

"Move! Move! Move!" Buck rushed the line of animals as he traveled in the opposite direction. Manny was clearing the way for them by moving the rocks and crystals that blocked the exit, while Roshan scouted around with Ellie, Crash, Eddie, Diego, and Shira to search for stuck animals and make sure that everyone was safely evacuated.

Ellie was swinging around, when she accidentally grabbed hold of a loosened patch of crystals which caused that patch to come down with her. Although not dead, a shard from the patch of crystals cut her right ankle quite deeply, which slightly crippled her.

"**OUCH!"** Ellie groaned as she was laying on the ground.

"Sis! Are you okay?" Crash came down to check on the wounded mammoth, blood started to trickled out and got the fur on Ellie's foot red.

"Do I look okay?! Did you two not notice the wound from my ankle or what? Do something!" Ellie was distressed as she tried to use her trunk and apply pressure on the wound to prevent further bleeding. Roshan did notice the injured mammoth from the back and he rushed in to help.

"Don't worry, I got you covered." Roshan ripped off a part of his sleeve, he told the possums to whip out their swords and use the force of leverage to remove the crystal shard in the cut. He used a Yarrow flower and rubbed it on the wound, then put the piece of cloth from his ripped sleeve to secure the wounded spot.

"Thanks, I really appreciat- **OW.**" Ellie tried to stand up but she instantly felt the sharp pain when she used her right foot to stand.

"This is not good for you. Diego and Shira, can you two help her?" Roshan asked the sabers.

"Well..uhh" before they could respond, Ellie refused the offer.

"No, thank you. Maybe I can resist the pain and suffice for a while. We can't just abort our tasks like that because of me. We have to move." She was quite determined to complete their task, and she was not letting anything intervene while they did so.

**-****•-**

Peaches and Julian were having a standoff. Julian charged at her hoping to disarm the mammoth, while Peaches constantly threw icicles and thrust him with her spear. The battle came to an end when Peaches missed one of her thrust, Julian grasped the chance and rammed her with the shield, sending the mammoth straight into the crystals.

"It's over, give up. Whatever sentient being you are, you know that you can't have her forever."

Peaches screeched at him, she reached her trunk to one of the crystals in the walls, as a way to tell him that she still had one last trick…

"Wait, no!" Julian knew what she was trying to do, so he came charging at her.

It was too late.

She pulled one of the crystals out, the place suddenly started to crumble and shatter violently. He tried to find a way out, but he was at high from the top.

He turned his eyes to look at the spot where Peaches once stood, only to realize that she's gone.

He screamed as he went down with the collapsing Geotopia.

…

…

...

"J̵̮̥͗͘ų̵̀͌l̶̢̫̂̅î̸̭̹a̶͚͍̎̾n̷͉͘."

He heard something, but he couldn't see anything.

"J̵̮̥͗͘ų̵̀͌l̶̢̫̂̅î̸̭̹a̶͚͍̎̾n̷͉͘ c̸̝̆a̴̜͛n̵͉̋ ̴͓̒y̶̲̅ò̵̲u̷̙͠ ̷̜͠h̷̩͌e̴̱̒a̷̮͌r̶̺̍ ̴̨̾ḿ̷̡e̴̘͝?̶̣̎"

It sounds muffled. But he can hear his name being called.

"J̵u̷l̸i̶a̶n̸!̴"

It gets louder a bit, as it was accompanied with the sounds of stones rolling around and being moved.

"Julian! You alright?"

He saw Manny in front of him, calling his name and gently shaking him to consciousness.

"W-what? Where are we?" Julian looked around, confused.

"Geotopia collapsed, we were really lucky to find you thanks to your distinctive fur color." Diego replied to Julian, as he looked around the pile of dust and rock.

"Peaches! Where are you!" Manny dig around the site, hopelessly looking for her.

"I'm sorry Manny, she escaped." Julian replied to inform Manny.

Manny stopped digging as he looked at the ground depressed.

"Was anyone hurt, Diego?" Julian wanted to know everyone's status.

"Well, everyone was ok other than Ellie, she got quite a cut on her ankle. Don't worry big pal, she's being taken care of" Diego smiled at Julian, telling him not to put worries onto his mind, despite the fact that things were not going well for them

Failed to pin her down in one designated spot. The Herd came to terms that if they don't manage to save her soon, it will all be over.

"Geotopia has fallen, she's going to head to the center of the valley next!" Diego started to realize that the situation had turned for the worse.

"Diego's right. If she's able to reach the center of Herd Valley all will be lost, and thousands will be killed!" Manny thought about it for a moment as he spoke out.

"What should be our next move then?" as Buck wondered.

"We clearly have to change plans, We'll wait for her to come to us." Manny exclaimed.

"By then you mean we just wait? We only have two days left before the icicle secures itself into her, furry pal. TWO DAYS!" Buck was concerned.

"Well, she managed to come up all the way from Ice Valley to here, she'll definitely try to take as many lives as possible without trouble." Manny was thinking of more about defending the animals in the valley than to go on a search to save her, since it clearly didn't work the last two times.

"So what's your new proposed plan?" Roshan was curious.

"We'll go back to the valley's center, and protect the animals, We'll set up an ambush on her if she comes by, so that we can make sure that there's no chance she's escaping." Manny told everyone that the only way to get her now is to use the elements of surprise.

"We better get a plan already on how to set up things, since time is literally burning down right now." Buck was worrying that this plan might not work, but mostly everyone thinks that it's now the only option at time.

"We'll try our best on this one, we have one last chance left."

**END OF PART 6.**


	7. The final conflict

After luckily managed to escape from the Herd's capture, Peaches moved to the hills of the Herd Valley for an easy shortcut to the center. The hills area were extremely coarse, with harsh climates and rough edges on the tracks, the skies were overall cloudy and snowstorms were 24/7. She had quite a hard time navigating through.

Suddenly the mammoth just screeched and screamed at nothing. It turned its head down to the ground as it tried to resist something in its mind. Perhaps the real Peaches woke up herself again? The mammoth even struggled to maintain balance while standing, something seems to be happening inside it, as the icicle on its back fiercely glared out beams of light.

It lasted for a few minutes, until the mammoth stopped itself from struggling.

"Hahah...Hahe**heHAHAHAHAAHA!"**

It then looked up to the sky and hysterically laughed with a creepy ghost-like sharp tone like a deranged creature (somewhat like the ligerings in the voice of sirens). It's eyes are no longer dead-open like the last times, but now it can blink and it has directions and emotions. The icicle violently misted out frost breeze on her back, and then just got on the move again to Herd Valley.

**-****•-**

"In order to keep all of you safe, We might have to put this place on clampdown. You might wanna start hiding in your homes and tightly block all entrances, prepare for the worst and hope for the best." Manny calmly announced after explaining everything to the animals, as they looked around and talked to each other, feeling concerned about the situation.

"What happens if you guys don't make it out alive?!"

"I don't want to die, I still have my kids to take care of!"

"There's gotta be a way for us to like run away or something!"

As the animals gave out their thoughts to the Herd. Manny had one final thing to say about it.

"I know you guys are worried, and you all wanted to survive, even us…"

He took a deep breath before giving out his speech.

"You can do one thing for us, help us set up an ambush on her when she comes. If this works to plan, we might save her and defeat the spirit all at once. What do you say?"

The animals looked around once again, but this time something seemed to be sparking on the animals that made them smile a bit. They looked at the Herd in belief as they shouted "YES!"

"We can all help you stop this catastrophe!"

"We are all into this,"

"Okay, maybe we can help before hiding…" the animals proudly made their decisions to help the Herd.

The Hyrax's leader, Fuzzy, made a dance to Sid as a way to say "YES" and they once again used berries as war paint.

"Alright then, we might need to start working now, time is running out pretty fast!"

The animals cooperatively work together to set up the place they would be luring Peaches into, they chopped trees, tied vines, and made hiding spots for the animals and setups for ambush, as Roshan led the building team, Manny and Julian gathered resources for the buildings and setups. While gathering wood, Manny noticed a little squirrel under his foot, begging for something as it tried to catch its breath.

It was Scrat, he was begging Manny for him to take the acorn on top of the mammoth down to him. Upon seeing the simple request that the saber-toothed squirrel asked for, he used his trunk to take the acorn down and gave it to Scrat.

Scrat was so happy that he finally earned it, and Manny earned the trust from the little squirrel.

Buck, Crash and Eddie checks for anomalies in the weather, the temperature and the scenery for any clues about Peaches. Diego and Shira were assigned as scouts, while Ellie and Sid advised people to keep calm. They were working well together, everything went well to schedule and within no time they finished everything for preparation.

"Well done guys, we appreciate your help!" as Ellie gave them a thanks on supporting them.

"Now leave the rest on us, we have important things to do." Manny exclaimed, he looked around everyone in the crowd of animals for the last time before going into position. Everyone wished them good luck on this last resort plan.

"I hope you're all stacked on food!" Sid gave the animals his last advice, like everyone else.

"Sid, you know you don't want to get them all worried" Ellie told Sid to actually say something posititve to uplift the animal's mental state,

Listened to the Herd. Everyone eventually went on lockdown, keeping their home, whether it's a cave, or a nest, protected carefully as secure as possible. While the Herd prepared for the encounter, hoping that it's the last one.

They ended up resting at their own designated spots as night falls, eating, training, or simply just playing for a better mood were the things that they did last night as they try not to pressure themselves. Buck was sharpening his knife, silently whispering something to Rudy. Crash and Eddie practice their sword skills. Roshan was checking his tools and items. Julian was laying down somewhere comfortable alone looking up to the starry sky, he really missed Peaches after days without her. Manny and Ellie talked about things before the faithful day tomorrow.

"I really hope things will be over soon." Manny murmured as they sat near the fire camp. Thinking about the possibilities tomorrow.

"I don't want our daughter to fall into the hands of that thing! It's too dangerous to even exist."

"Well, Manny, If we managed to end things either in a good way or a bad way, just remember that we did our best, and we had a very good run for years and seasons, as a herd together with the ones we cared and loved for." Ellie tried to motivate Manny. He just smiled as they looked at each other and locked trunks together.

"Tomorrow is going to be a rough, long day. We should get some sleep." Manny told his wife to keep themselves ready for things tomorrow.

Scrat, after trusting Manny from his deed, decided to just set his acorn near him and slept beside the Herd.

**-****•-**

Peaches made it close to the center of the valley, as she wandered into the place where Ellie once set their wedding anniversary with her daughter. Peached just looked around and continued to slowly walk. This place seemed familiar to her in a special way.

She suddenly heard a noise from the bushes.

Curious, she came to check what's inside, while her surroundings were completely dead quiet. She started to take notice of what was going on. She turned around, and saw vines coming from multiple directions.

The vines pinned Peaches down as the Herd charges out, She screeched and screamed at them, as icicle instantly launched in countless directions. She was directly in the ambush planned by the Herd.

"I got it! I got it!"

Sid managed to climb up her back, but before he could even put his hands onto the icicle, Peaches broke from her bonds and knocked the sloth off, she summoned her spear and her thrust barely missed the sabers running around her, this made the sabers retreat, pulling Sid away as the possum brothers charged up, with their swords drawn they blocked the incoming icicles at them by parrying. Roshan firmly loaded his bow from the bushes. Julian had a hard time moving closer to her because the incoming barrage of icicles went all out on his shield.

"Whoever pulls that icicle out gets to be 'big' brother!" Eddie mocked Crash as they swiftly dashed into Peaches, with the only objective to pull the icicle out from their beloved niece.

"Hey, you got a head start, that's not fair!" Crash immediately came up with reasons to prove that it's unfair to do so.

Peaches stomped down, creating a cluster of ice which knocked one possum down, as Crash mocked his fallen brother he boosted himself up from the cluster high into the air, freeing himself from the line of firing icicles. Thought that he was clear, he dove down straight down into the icicle, in order to remove it.

That was what he thought, until a hidden glowing icicle appeared behind Peaches that he didn't notice came through him, hitting him in the abdomen, and pinned him into the tree next to her.

"CRASH!" Eddie called his name in horror after noticing him being pinned straight into a tree, everyone turned their eyes on the possum. He was bleeding, and his eyes started to dilate a little. His breathing was getting harder, as he struggled around.

Everyone was shocked, Peaches just came near and gently lifted the dying possum with her trunk, as it looked at her with its eyes covered in fear and pain. She just giggled at it, and replied with a ghostly disturbing tone, which to the Herd's surprise, she had never did that before.

"_Hello, little guy…" _She looked at it with muderous intentions, as a clear grin was clearly forming on her face.

Something was off the plan after the Herd heard what she just said.

"Wait, you can talk?!" Manny asked in disbelief when Buck immediately added in bad news for the team.

"**NO! WE ARE LATE!" **Buck shouted, as he knew that they may already lost before they even fought.

**END OF PART 7**


	8. Dis-Herded

"NO!" Eddie immediately jumped into Peaches as he blindly swings his sword around in anger and fury.

Peaches looked at the tiny possum and smirked at his efforts to land a strike as she walked backwards to dodge them.

"Aaaw, look at you little bean. Maybe you could use some kicks."

After that being said, she kicked Eddie away, sent him flying into the tree near Ellie's

"Eddie? You alright?!" Ellie worried about both of her brothers

"Possum...down.." Eddie managed to mutter those words before he faints, or feign his death.

Roshan let go of his arrow, he aimed at the legs of the mammoth in hopes to immobilize it.

Peaches however did notice the arrow flying to her ankle, and she summoned an ice wall in its direction, blocking the arrow.

"Nice try human, but that ain-"

Julian rammed straight through the wall and pushed her a few meters. She swung her tusks right at Julian's face which stopped him from continuing to do so. She then launched a boulder of ice which knocked him back a few steps.

That helped Buck to use his vines and caught her tusks, he went ballistic on the icicle as he descent, his knife point towards first.

"This might hurt a bit, Nectarine!" He grinned as he went down closer to the icicle, while evading most of her attacks.

"No, this will" Peaches simply grabbed the airborne weasel from the air and threw him to the other side. Roshan jumped out of the bush and engaged close-quarter combat to her. He gritted his teeth in wrath as he clashed his spear with hers.

"You should have stayed there!" He shouted in anger at the mammoth. The mammoth simply laughed and replied.

"You think that small little worn-down structure is capable of keeping me detained? You must be daydreaming for decades and years now!"

Roshan heavily hit his spear down with his teeth gritted each other, breaking Peaches' ice spear, he looked at her with eyes filled with fire as he stabbed her sternum. She backed away a bit, as her teeth clenched in slight pain, but the smile remained on her face.

"Looks like you've been improved during the times, also. I adore that, heehee." She commended Roshan's fighting skills. "But worry no more, Once this devoted sacrifice is mine to fully control, it's only a matter of time before your kind dies with the REST OF THE ANIMALS!" as she created an axe head made out of ice and chopped down on Roshan's spear, splitting it in half.

"It's NOT YOURS TO KEEP!" He scolded the mammoth.

Roshan managed to dodge the mammoth's incoming axe strikes, only to be knocked away when she hit him with the axe's poll.

"Hmmm, perhaps it may be. Oh and on second thought, I take my compliment about your fighting skills back, teehee." She replied to the human laying at the corner holding his stomach in pain.

Ellie swung herself at Peaches, in efforts to deliver a sharp kick. Peaches performed an evasive maneuver to dodge the incoming mammoth, as she launched an icicle at the vines, dropping Ellie down to the ground.

"Not falling for the trick twice, mommy." Peaches smirked at her efforts in disapproval.

"Give my daughter back! You mindless being." She said with a hint of fury in her voice.

"Oh, look at you motherly mammoth, but I got to tell you, she's already back. This..." as she used her trunk to point at the icicle on her back "...this is her new 'home' now, heehee."

Peaches told Ellie that fact which made her furious, Ellie immediately charged at Peaches, hitting her with her tusks at her side. Peaches responded to her attack with a boulder to the face, Ellie was then knocked out instantly, as a stream of blood flow out from the crest on her head.

"ELLIE! NO!" Manny was really exasperated at what just happened. Peaches quickly turned her focus on him after she heard his call.

"Oh, so this is the head of the pack. I see, go on Manny, show me what you got, poofy." she slowly walks towards him, her grip on the axe head tightens.

Manny came running to her and got the first strike, as the shield prevented him from getting struck with the axe.

"You are not worthy to have her! You parasitic monster!" Manny disarmed her after he bashes his shield right at her trunk, her axe head slips away from her grasp. He then hit her right at the head with his plank, which tumbled the mammoth and knocked it back.

She got up from the fall quickly, as she formed a sword in her trunk.

"You have always been such a splinter in my eye, you sack of flesh." She angrily exclaimed, as she dashed at Manny. "I'll make them vile rot under my blade!"

"What are you?!" Manny asked as he cringed in fear when Peaches held the sword in her trunk and slashed him.

"Oh, I come with many names, some people called me_ the icicle_. The humans called me_ the spirit_. Others named me _the dangerous jewel_, and yada yada yada (etc.), but I don't really care about it."

Manny struggled to block her incoming attacks. She rapidly landed blow after blow after blow. It lasted for a while until she heavily sent her blade down, and broke Manny's shield to pieces. Manny slowly backed away from the lunatic mammoth. It then made a request to him.

"Dad, you know it's been quite a time when we play hockey together right?" She asked with a mischievous intent. Manny raised his eyebrow and asked.

"Ye, so?"

"That was your game for so long. Now let us play my game this time." She said as she forms another sword and passed it into Manny's trunk. Manny can already see where this was leading to.

"En garde" Peaches shouted, as she came straight into Manny, and both of them engaged in combat. The sound of ice clenched together in the air as they also put themselves in a conversation.

"Look at you over the past decades, old but still robust. I really love that!" She said as she caught Manny slightly off guard, and tried to slice off his knees, but the big old mammoth knew her tricks. He put his blade right at its way and shove one of his tusk right into Peaches, knocking her back.

"You're getting too much pride in you, that would make you fall without humility!" Manny came at her again and attempt to strike her, he stabbed right at her thigh and then used his trunk to pull the icicle out, but as soon as he touched the icicle, Peaches immediately got back up, despite the fact that there's a bleeding wound from the strike that Manny gave her.

"Woah, woah, what did you think you were doing?" She laughed at Manny's attempt to pull the luminous icicle out. Manny looked at the mammoth get on itself again with ease in disbelief.

"H-how did...you, I stabbed your leg?!" He soon found out that he was wrong all along, and he didn't know what he was dealing with until now.

"I'm sorry, who's leg? No, not mine, it was your sweet little angel's leg. Teehee!" Peaches laughed that off as she looked at the shocked Manny. "You see, I'm just controlling her body, I don't feel any pain at all, really, NONE at all! I may be even controlling her injured self or even her dead carcass right now, without any discomfort. Gotta say, it took quite some time for me to control her, you have quite a stubborn daughter, but eventually, she gave up. I hope you finally know what was going on all the time now, silly old mammoth. Heeheehee."

"No, no NO!" Manny lost what was left on his mind, all of his members are rather wounded or even unconscious. His rage increased as he tried to go for the icicle by reaching his sword to it. That however created a huge chance for Peaches to disarm him, as she attacked Manny with one swing, the sword flew out of his trunk, he then used his tusks to defend himself from the menacing Peaches.

"Look at you, a mortal being, blind to the obvious facts around you, tried its best to stop something like me?!" She hit Manny harder within every strike, while he resisted with his two tusks. "This should be a price for you to pay when you can't come to its TERMS!" She upper slashed Manny's right tusk. It was a hard, powerful swing at the helpless old mammoth.

Manny's tusk broke out from its place.

She then swung her tusks right at him, which knocked him to the trees.

"Heeheehee, looks like I'm winning, daddy…" as she came closer to the injured mammoth, fidgeting the sword around with her trunk.

Manny looked at her, as he asked:

"Why are you...doing this?"

Peaches just glared at him, and gave the mammoth a smile.

"I think that my objectives are way beyond your little understanding, big guy."

"Countless animals had died because of your objectives, moron."

Peaches replied to that almost immediately in wrath upon hearing what Manny said.

"Because that's the only THING ANIMALS DO!" she calmed down a little and explained her 'vision' to Manny.

"Don't you see? All they do is DIE, DIE and DIE! Every day millions of them are killed because of various causes. They DIE in the hands of humans, climate change, disasters, hunger, thirst, and reasons UNKNOWN! They even kill each other too for survival and to be on top of the food chain, heheh, so HOW ARE YOU SO BLIND TO SUCH THINGS MANNY?!"

Manny looked at the thing as if it had already lost its mind at the very beginning.

"Well then what are you going to plan for if the world is that miserable like you described?"

"Oh, it's a real simple, old friend. **Kill or be killed.**"

"But why do we have to do that when we can form communities toge-"

"THEY ARE TEMPORARY! Communities are just solutions that will soon cause other problems! Manny, you need to know that NOTHING, NOTHING IN THIS WORLD LAST FOREVER! It's either short, or long, and this…"

She said as she turned her back and looked at Ellie, she then raised a cluster of sharp icicles to Ellie. The icicle clusters slowly rose closer to the unconscious mammoth's throat.

"This is the long term solution." She said as Manny witnessed the scene in horror.

**END OF PART 8**


	9. Cease control

"You don't have to do this. She's INNOCENT!" Manny begged the spirit to spare his wife's life. Peaches still slowly let the icicles approach her throat, as she grinned out.

"You'll 'thank' me later for it, big guy. I can assure you that she'll be safer in paradise than here!** TeeheeheeHAHAHA**!"

Manny shutted his eyes down fast, he couldn't witness the scene as Ellie's neck was close to resting on the sharp pointy tip.

.

.

"Oh Maannnyy! Don't you just love how the tables had turned so quickly, right my gentle giant?"

.

.

"**NO!"** Julian came out and bashed her as hard as he could with his wood plank. The impact dazed the frosty mammoth a little, and it stopped the rising icicle from impaling Ellie, as it dissipated. Peaches looked at Julian angrily as she blocked his strike with her trunk and head butted him. He fell back as he got surrounded by icicles.

Peaches then used her trunk and rubbed at the spot where Julian hit her and laughed.

"I admired that bravery, but last-ditch efforts are so plain and boring." She mocked him, then she suddenly got an idea for her 'game'.

"Oh..wait! Manny, Let's play this game shall we?" she looked at him as she giggled. "I know you have someone special in your life that you always love and care for until your time comes. Who would it be, Manny? Teeheehee."

"Is it her?" She said as she pointed an icicle at Ellie's skull.

"Or him? Let's see if you're actually brave, or you just haven't heard of the word 'Death' until now." Julian saw one pointing close at his eyes socket.

"Uhh...Bro-dad?! If you're gonna have to choose, just please know that I'm ready to sacrifice for the greater good...But I also don't wanna DIE!" Julian murmured as fears slowly formed in his eyes.

"You're sick being, you're a madman!" Manny looked at her in disgust as she laughed. She suddenly stopped laughing to add one more member of his pack to the list.

"I almost forgot, maybe it is even…"

She pointed an icicle at herself as he looked at Manny with her wild eyes.

"Just please stop, you don't have to do this. I don't see any of these actions benefit your objectives whatsoever!" Manny was really on the verge of fear as he was about to see one of his loved ones flash away in front of his eyes.

"I mean, you've been quite a giant obstacle blocking my way. I just wanted you to see that, by putting a giant mark on you in return. I think you wouldn't understand how cold and lonely it is to stay in that ruin for centuries would you? Overall, I'm just giving you back your medicine, don't yo-**AAARRGGH!**"

Peaches suddenly yelled out in pain as she felt something sharp hit right at the icicle on her back.

"I may be puny, but I am very skilled in acting dead!" Crash said as he sneak attacked her and pushed his stone blade deeper into the icicle, while Peaches tried to buck the possum off like a bull in a rodeo. Diego and Shira came in to help him by trying to keep her down with vines coming from 2 directions..

"Looks like you don't have such a good memory aren't you?" Diego smirked as he felt like the mammoth forgot the sabers' existences in the fight. Buck also jumped in and helped Crash to remove the icicle.

"You think that little throw is gonna disable me for life, mate?" Buck came in as he stabbed his knife on the openings that the icicle caused on Peaches' back to remove it as he tried to push it down.

"GGGRH! You little RASCALS!" She shouted as she tried to get up, but Diego and Shira got the hold on the vines secured tightly. The pain increased for Peaches as Crash and Buck managed to slightly loosened the icicle.

Peaches summoned an icicle and launched at one of the vines holding her down, as it snapped away easily like scissors cutting paper.

"Alright...umm...Change of plans?" Diego asked Buck and Crash as the mammoth got up and looked at them in fury. There was a clear distinctive crack on the icicle.

"I'll...I'll ***screams and screeches*** KILL ALL OF YOU!"

"Go with the 'circles'!" Shira told Diego about their next vining trick.

Peaches recalled her ice sword again, but this time there was a significant sign of damage on it, somewhat like the icicle on the back. While Peaches was distracted by the remaining members of the Herd, Manny took off his shell helmet and used it as a blunt object to break his way out from the surrounding cluster of icicles he had been imprisoned in.

"HEY? Aren't you supposed to go anti clockwise?"

"I thought YOU'RE the one going anti clockwise!" Diego and Shira somehow ended up bonded themselves together by running into each other whilst trying to dodge the mammoth's attacks.

Buck with his technical difficulties in the launcher caused the weasel to ram his head straight into stones at launch when he attempted to aim at Peaches.

"You're too small for this body, slimy stick!" Crash said as he blocked an incoming attack from Peaches with a smile on his face, it lasted for a while until his sword ultimately broke while trying to defuse the situation. It was broken at the time he was trying to defend a strike from her tusks.

He nervously looked at his broken sword hilt as he silently whispered :"Oh shoot…"

"Pick on someone your own size in the afterlife. Now DIE, FILTHY POSSUM!." She swung her blade down on the unarmed possum. The icy blade was going straight into Crash's forehead as it would split his body apart clean…

"At least I died trying…" the possum mumbled out.

...but before she could they both heard a weird scream from the woods.

"**HYAAAH!"** The shout of the sloth (or the Fire lord himself) came charging into the mammoth, with his torch still burning bright and clear in his grip as it completely obliterated the sword into a mess of crumbs after he swung it into the blade.

"You underestimated me too much there, sweetheart." He said as he slapped her face with the fiery heat emitting from the torch.

"**AURH!" **she shrieked out as the heat gave her immense pain, but she refused to fall back.

"Lords are symbols of power and nobility, they are not worthy to have disgusting green floppy SLOTHS LIKE YOU!" She shouted as a vow of not being defeated by someone or something like Sid.

"Ah not again?! When will you just give up? You can have a chance to restart a new and get better outcomes!" Sid tried to confront Peaches as he didn't want to use too much violence.

"Shut up!"

She looked at him angrily, assuming something in his sentence had offended her as she pelted Sid with her icicles. He raised his torch up as a way to block them, one of them went through and got stuck mid-way when it hit the torch's solid wood body.

"Man this torch has alotta wood! Th-***OOF!***" Sid complimented the torch for saving him from being hit in the face, but then he got knocked off as she whacked him to the side with her tusks.

"This will be the last time you have tasted fresh air." She approached the frightening sloth with a shard in control. Sid slowly crawled away and screamed in fear as he begged for mercy.

"OKAY OKAY CALM DOWN, NOTHING SHOULD BE RESOLVED IN VIOLENCE." the sloth yelled out as something to buy some time.

"SLEEP TIGHT! You worthless sloth!" She exclaimed as she launched her icicle down to the miserable sloth, as he screamed louder.

"Bedtime has not YET TO COME!"

Manny came to the save by jumping right in front of the icicle as he hit his helmet at it, shattering the thing into pieces. Peaches then tried to attempt to launch another one, but Manny then used his helmet and dumped it onto her, blinding the mammoth's view as she struggled to stand properly and maintain balance.

"Nothing." He pushed her like a bulldozer straight to a designated tree.

"Ever." Manny then held her down as he whistled, calling out for something in the woods.

"LASTS." He called out as he tried to keep her from breaking away.

"**URGH!** ***shrieks and sharp cries* **You have ANNOYED ME FOR THE LAST TIME!"

As Peaches used her trunk to remove the helmet and tried to break free. Scrat, upon hearing the signal that Manny had given him, jumped out from the tree and landed on her back, with his amazing capability of pulling things out, the saber-toothed squirrel used all of its power into pulling the icicle off. Peaches screams of pain were getting louder as the icicle was slowly loosing up away from her back. Refused to be defeated like this, it tried its last effort to aim an icicle straight into Manny's head, with a hope to drag him down with her.

The entire scene felt like it turned slow-mo as the icicle was launched, aiming for the mammoth's skull, Manny was only able to have a glance of it coming straight to him, as he quickly closed his eyes and 'brace' for its impact. His life was on the hands of Scrat, if this little saber-toothed squirrel fails to do what he was assigned to, all is lost.

.

.

.

.

.

The icicle was clearly in the grasp of Scrat.

.

.

.

.

.

"**HEEIIGGHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!" **Scrat let out his "acorn-ripping" call as he pulled out something, he can't be sure about it, but it felt really cold.

.

.

.

.

.

The spirit had decided to give up.

The icicle that was launched at Manny that nearly touched his eyelid suddenly evaporated in a blink.

"Forever." Manny ended his sentence by the time the icicle was taken out.

The area was soon covered by macabre screams and shrieks from Peaches:

"**NOAᔑ!ᔑᔑAAO!ᔑ𝙹Au*-aa!AoAo-!" **The spirit tried to shout out something in the voice of Peaches, before it completely turned silent.

Peaches slowly turned back to normal, with her light brown fur and red-ish brown scalp hair again. She collapsed immediately after all the hellish bellows and Manny soon came to her as he wrapped around her body with his trunk, her body was regaining temperature as it was getting hotter after the removal of the icicle.

She opened her eyes lightly, as her green familiar and endearing pupils moved teeny by tiny bit.

"I was hoping for this day to come." Manny muttered in happiness as his daughter slowly gained consciousness, without any signs of anomalies. He was happier than ever at that moment. Everyone there who was still conscious looked at them as the emotions build up inside them, especially Scrat and Sid. The sight of a father protecting his child with all of his efforts, where slashes, blood trails, tree branches, and worn out weapons scattered around the area in the aftermath of the final and brutal clash.

"D...Dad?" her voice is no longer creepy-toned anymore like the time she was controlled. Peaches started to see clearer of who was in front of her.

"Yes. It's me Fuzzball, it is me. It's over, it's all over. W-we've won." Manny softly whispered to Peaches, he started to tear up in front of his sweet soft mammoth that he had his chance to hold on.

"W-We…..won?" Peaches was confused at her father's words as she looked around the battleground and saw familiar faces, some were fine and some were wounded. She then noticed Manny's right tusk isn't there anymore.

"Wh-what...happened to o-one...of yo-your tus-***AAGHH!***" she suddenly got some sort of a bad migraine, it was incredibly painful as it feels like she just hit her head constantly into a coarse wall when she thought about what just happened around.

"Peaches? You alright sweetheart?" Manny got worried for her, but she quickly recovered from it.

"Ye, I'm...alright. Just pretend that I never asked that." Something about the sudden pain made her change her mind. It felt like memories went splatting into her mind, but nevertheless, she gave Manny a hug and replied:

"I can't believe you would do everything to save me."

Manny just looked at her and smiled: "That's what fathers do."

"I have so many questions to Peaches right now" Diego asked if Peaches might want to have a talk with him.

Peaches had a short hug with Manny until she caught her eyes on her motionless mammoth mother, Ellie.

"Mom!" Peaches suddenly changed her attention to Ellie. She rushed straight to the fainted mammoth at the far side, as a line of blood from her head flowed down to her face started to stop and dry up. Peaches looked at her and felt devastated, as she fretted at Ellie's injuries.

"If only I didn't become such a daredevil, nothing would happen and she would be FINE!" Peaches called as she tormented herself inside and tears came running out, but Roshan was there to calm the young mammoth down

"Don't worry, she'll be alright, we can take care of this." Roshan looked at Peaches and he grinned to keep her fine."You're not the reason that all of these events happened, alright? Just remember that in your head."

"Uhhh...GUYS!" Sid pointed at the icicle slowly floating up as it turned its sharp point right at Manny.

"Uh oh…..This...this...isn't good." Manny exclaimed as he slowly backed away. He stared at the icicles aiming at him, scared to break eye contact from the thing to turn his back and run...

but before it can even launch, there's a maniacal yell in the background. Everybody can already guess who it was from the sound.

"**HAH!**" Buck grabbed on the icicle, pushing it down to the ground as the weasel lifted his blade up.

The spiritual icicle tried wiggling its way out from Buck's hold, but it was ineffectual.

"Nothing ever lasts forever, isn't it mate?" Buck looked at it as he smiled, his grasp on the tooth was tightened as he swung it down on the icicle, like an executioner.

A clear and crisp breaking sound was heard the moment the Baryonyx's tooth touched the fragile ice.

The icicle broke into half, as it created some crackling sound and it started to mist for a while. It then stopped emitting light completely and its color turned from light cyan to dark-gray as voices lingers around. Buck felt a bit disturbed by it but he just ignored it after a while.

"Huh, I guess that saying is true."

**END OF PART 9.**


	10. The upshot (end)

"Hey...hey! Wake up!" There were whispers around the Ice Valley, which made Ashley wake up.

"Wh-what?" She opened her eyes and looked at the gentle muskox she'd been leaning on the past days. She then let her eyes wander around and saw many animals looking at each other and themselves confused.

"What happened?"

"Why are we here?"

"Did it work?"

"Where's my watermelon?!"

"..."

The skies are no longer dark, instead it is bathed in the beautiful sunshine and snowflakes as the glorious dawn revealed itself along the horizon. The animals took a while to admire the beauty and then scattered around, heading out different directions as they chatted and walked back to where they're supposed to be.

Ashley soon then realised something, she looked at her muskox friend and asked, her eyes were filled to the brim with hope and light.

"Did somebody make it? W-we...are safe now? Did 'they'...did what I think 'they' do?"

The muskox just looked at the hopeful beaver and laughed off, as she picked Ashley up, she say:

"The name's Valerie. Nice to meet you, Ash."

Ashley looked at her new friend, being quite shy to give out a response.

"Right...hi...Val. ehh-I-uh-I...H-how did you know my name?" She asked as she felt quite curious."

"Heh, I never reveal that secret to anyone so far, bud." claimed the ox as they continued to journey back home, knowing that they had survived another day to live life and enjoy things that the current world can offer.

**-****•-**

Footsteps can be heard outside, as the pack of Diatrymas, consisted of a mother and 3 babies standing as far as possible away from the blocked entrance of a small cave they decided to snug in and hide out as a shelter.

All of a sudden, footsteps can be heard storming louder and louder, as then it was soon accompanied with the sound of clanking on the stones outside. This made the babies freaked out as they stick closer and tighter with their mother like superglue.

"M-mom…" one baby whispered. "...what if the thing broke through?" There was a clear hint of fear in every word of the little Diatryma.

"SHHH…Don't say a word…" the mother quickly used her wing to cover her baby's beak and whispered, She doesn't really want anything to hear them, as the cave is covered in darkness and silence.

The giant boulder that was blocking the entrance of the cave suddenly moved as there was something pushing in. The Diatrymas stared at the little gap that light managed to go through as they saw a dark, big figure trying to burst in. The featherly mother used her nest to cover all of her babies at a corner, as she decided to stand against what is going through this entrance. The babies looked at her emotionally, as one started to shed tears.

A mammoth then busted in as it looked around. Due to panic responses. The Diatryma just jumped in and pecked the mammoth in its face, as she's willing to protect her younglings at all costs.

She kept attacking until she heard a familiar voice that came out from the mammoth.

"Wa-Wait, Matria! Stop, it's ME! Stop"

The mother bird, Matria, then stopped to look at who she was attacking.

"P-Peaches?" Matria still remembered the one mammoth that went on a journey to find her egg back, who has an adventurous and bold daughter. "I thought you're-"

"It's alright, we got her back. It's all over." Before the bird could reply, Manny, who was trying to catch up on Peaches, told her to worry no more.

The little birds hiding from the nest then started to peak their heads out after hearing the voice of Manny. They looked at each other happily as they knew that the danger was finally over.

"What happened to your daughter?" The birds got curious as they asked the reason that led to such a disastrous event.

Manny looked at them nervously and just gave a giggle and said: "Um...Long story, We'll talk about that some day if we have free time. Now go outside." He then quickly dragged Peaches as they rushed over to the shelters of others.

The birds then looked at each other confused, wondering what just happened. Manny then at a random moment peaked his head back in and exclaimed: "Actually, It's best that you shouldn't know about it."

As the Sun rose to the top, more and more animals went out as they were greeted with the gentle beezy atmosphere and the warming sunshine at the same time. It was really over, as the Herd once again had become victorious in another harsh journey like no other.

"Is your daughter going to kill us?" Some of the baby aardvarks got scared a bit as they asked the mammoth with bandages on her ankle and head, Ellie. She looked at them and giggled.

"The thing that was trying to kill us is gone now. We are safe, nothing's gonna hurt you anymore, alright?" Ellie told them that everything will be alright.

"Is he going to kill us?!" one of the aardvark used it's trunk to point in a direction.

This made Ellie turn her head in the direction where the aardvark was pointing, only to see Roshan standing near them.

"Um...no. He's our little guy that helped us in the journey, and an old friend, I guess. Do not be afraid, heheh." Ellie tried to calm the aardvarks down as they got fazed upon seeing a human. Roshan looked at the aardvarks and didn't hesitate to come closer. As they tried backing away, he put his hand on one of them as he pet the aardvark gently.

"I am not your enemy, little guy" He gave them a gentle smile which completely stunned the aardvark, but it left the animal amazed.

Brooke came to hold Sid's hands as Sid asked her.

"Geotopia had collapsed but you are still young. Is this a miracle?!"

Brooke laughed that off as she said.

"Not anymore my dear. Thanks to the last crystal's power we still get to remain our youth as long as we have this bracelet or necklace on." as she showed Sid her bracelet with a glowing pink crystal on it.

"Aww. Do we have to rebuild Geotopia again?" a voice of a unicorn called out.

"BUBBLES! You're ALIVE!" as Misty came to check out on her, she nudged on the unicorn with love and care. "I thought I would never get to see you again."

"It's alright Misty, It's all fine." Bubbles exclaimed, as she wanted her sister to get off her.

"WE DID IT ANIMALS! WE SURVIVED THE DISASTER!" Fast Tony shouted as he saw the amount of animals coming out from their hideouts increased more and more. They cheered up and celebrated. Fuzzy then came up to the Herd, as they stood in the middle of the crowd of animals. He then did a dance with some of the Hyraxes, then after that a swift squeak, as the crowd chanted their names.

Manny looked around confused, as Sid poked him.

"What, Sid?"

"We are now the Valley's guardians. Manny."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"G-U-A-R-D-I-A-N-S, guardians. Isn't that honorable, Manny?"

"Well, I guess. Isn't that too much of a title?"

**OW.** Diego came and gently punched Manny by his shoulder

"Go with the flow, Manny. Go with the flow."

**-****•-**

6 months later, Roshan and Manny were sitting near a cliff in the Valley, as the majestic view of sunset and the low, quiet sea hit their eyes. It was very calm and relaxing, as the sound of waves crashing into the rocks and birds flying upon their heads. They sat down to have a chatter.

"You know, sometimes I prefer to go sightseeing like this, take a view of the the world or things like that, you know…" Manny told how he feels about some of his hobbies.

"Ye, sometimes I do enjoy things like this when I'm in the mood." Roshan replied simply.

"So anyways...you want to come with us?" Manny asked Roshan with the capacity of a friend. Roshan looked at him, then stared back out at the horizon.

"I'm sorry, Manny, I wish I could, but I have places to go and things to do. Sure I can be one of your members, but I think that I still have people...and well, animals who need me. I'm sorry poofy, but if you ever need me, I'll hear your call." He replied with all of his honesty, he knew that Manny can still go well with the Herd without his help, and that he should use his help on others who are in need of it.

"Well, you're leaving tomorrow morning?"

"Yep."

Manny then looked at his Neanderthal friend, as he used his trunk and reached for something in his thick fur, something that he wanted to give Roshan as a gift of memories.

"I-I-think you would need this back. It's been a ton of years since."

"Manny, I don't think you owe me anything my big ma-" He suddenly got cut off as he saw the object Manny's holding on his trunk.

It was the necklace that Runar, Roshan's father once gave Manny back in the Ice age to thank the benevolent mammoth for returning back his dear baby.

Roshan wouldn't let his eyes off the necklace, he let out a smile as he reached out to grab the necklace with both hands. He looked at it as if it's a life form, drops of tears had already started to land on the wooden charms of the necklace.

"D-d..Dad." He started to mumble, as Manny came and put his trunk on Roshan's shoulder.

"It's alright bud, It's alright, I can understand." the mammoth tried to confront the human, whose emotion had been running wild inside.

"Manny I...I-I'm- I…-..." he let out a long pause "Manny, thank you. Without you, I don't think I would remember my father." he said as he glanced over the now one-tusked woolly mammoth, his grasp on the necklace tightened.

"Well, glad to know about that, Pinky. How's your father anyway?" Manny said with a soft and cheerful tone in hopes for an answer.

Roshan went dead-silent for a while before he exclaimed the hurtful truth.

"G-go...-gone. Presumably dead."

Manny looked at him with his eyes wide open. He slightly shook his head around in disbelief and asked his devastated friend.

"Wait w-what?! Why-w-what happened?!"

"He ju-ust...disappeared with his hunting group on 1 day, a-and...never to be se-seen again. I-I...didn't...get..to say goodbye...to him on that...fa-faithful day wh-when he left…" Roshan muttered as tears had already started turning into 'rivers' flowing down from his face. Looking at him in this state, Manny just came and gave his primate friend a good, warm hug with his trunk, as he whispered: "It's okay, it's okay Pinky, it's alright."

Manny then took the necklace off Roshan's hands and then wiped out his tears. Roshan then looked up at the mammoth curiously about its actions.

"Dead or alive, I am sure that your father had always waited for this day to come. The day when his son finds the mammoth that once saved him, and get to wear this on his neck with all pride and honor." Manny said as he put the necklace onto Roshan, and he looked at the thing with all due respect.

Roshan looked at the necklace resting on his chest, then came charging at Manny with his arms spread wide.

"Come here you big dork!" Roshan came in and hugged the mammoth, as the sun started to go down more and more, and light started to slowly yet firmly fade away.

"Hey, what took you two so long?" Sid, who was on Diego's back, asked them as they were letting go of each other.

Roshan quickly wiped off the remaining tears on his face as both of them quickly replied: "NOTHING."

"Just a little friendly chatter, friends' style." Manny tried to act cool after his emotional moment with Roshan.

"Welp, I'm going back to camp first, there's a long journey for me tomorrow." said Roshan as he walked away, while giving out peace sign back at Manny.

"Goodbye, Rosh."

"Bye, Manfred."

"Well don't you look at that, guys. He's all grown up." Manny stated as he looked at Roshan walking away, then turned back to look at the horizon.

"Such a beautiful view don't you think?" Manny said as he looked at Diego and Sid, however, none of them replied.

"Guys?"

They suddenly started to hide a laugh before Manny could realise that there was something right behind him.

**"SURPRISE!"**

"**GAAAHHH!" **Manny flipped himself over as Peaches and Julian jumpscared him by their unexpected appearances.

It was then that Sid and Diego started to laugh at the upside down Manny. While Peaches and Julian giggled at it. After Manny managed to flip himself over, he told the mammoth pair.

"You two got me there, heheh...How's your adventure?"

Peaches looked at Manny as she grinned "Oh, we just found a lot of umm…. 'souvenirs' I guess, like this decorated rock that Julian found or this piece of leaf with a luminous pattern."

Manny ignored all of the things they showed to him and he just hugged both of the mammoths.

"I'm glad that you all made it back here in one piece, that's the only thing I cared about."

"It's alright to have some happy accidents along the way, dad. Heehee." Julian tried to dissuade Manny from being so worried about her when they're on adventures.

"Yea and then one day you or her will come back with a thirst for blood and murder due to something that takes over you like the incident last time." Manny wasn't joking around with what he'd just said. Peaches paused for a while as she thought about it.

"Well speaking of the incident, what if I fall for things like that again during one of my journeys? I don't wanna be the culprit to such nightmarish stuff!"

Manny looked at the slightly paranoid Peaches, as he gave her a smile.

"Well, telling you to quit and stay with us sure is easy, but that would never be your choice, and I'm in no position to demand you to do so."

"Dad, I just don't want to make mistakes like that." Peaches told her eternal desire to Manny, who then dragged Julian near Peaches, and then continued where he left off.

"Everyone makes mistakes, Fuzzball. If Sid ever taught me anything in life, that would be it. You need to know that nobody is perfect, It's just the matter that if you're able to learn anything from it. They are not final or fatal, darling, they are lessons of life. Same goes to you, big boy." Manny ended his talk as he looked at them grinning, he then sneakily glared back at Sid, who was literally tearing out, thanking the mammoth for crediting him.

"Well, Sid." Diego lightly taps him by his arm "You may be a screw-up, but you're not useless."

"Dad, I don't think saying "thank you" is good enough anymore" Peaches said as both of them hugged him.

"How are you boys doing? And hi there darling." Ellie asked while Buck, Crash and Eddie were on her back while Shira walked with her along the way.

"Oh well, nothing much...why didn't you tell me sooner that they're coming, El?"

"I thought you remember that they come back every 3 months?" Ellie looked at him, as she raised her eyebrows and gave him that weird yet unique look of her own everytime she felt something's wrong.

"Oh...ye, right…" Manny then tried to change the subject by asking Buck some questions.

"HEY Buck! uhm...Will you stay up here now or you're gonna go down there again?"

"Oh well of course I gotta go down back there, Rudy's gonna be mad at me if I don't show up, you know what I mean." He then gave Manny a wink (under the eyepatch) as he head off.

"You're going now?"

"Of course, and sorry for not telling sooner, it's his feeding time by the way."

Manny smirked at the weasel.

"How's your relationship with it?"

Buck scratched his head and answered.

"Well, sometimes we have fun and sometimes it's just a mess, I'm still trying to improve it though."

Manny gave him a smile as he said farewell.

"Goodluck with whatever you are doing, hermit."

"Ye and you too! Oh, maybe find a replacement for that lost tusk would ya, you're losing your glamour without it! Heheh."

Manny then looked at Buck with a simper look.

"Beauty is not my passion." he then had a comeback against Buck as well "Go find a replacement for your right eye then."

Buck felt a bit irritated that he got 'demolished' in his game of mocking, so he tried to retreat from it.

"Alright, no need to 'throw hands' like that, I'm going. Be back soon!"

And then he ran back from the direction he came from.

"Well, I guess we are back to our normal lives now." Manny exclaimed to the Herd.

"Well, we got plenty of things to do though. Do we?" Ellie stared at him as she waited for an answer.

"What else do we have to do? You guys saved me from that terrorising icicle and destroyed it as well, now what?" Peaches wondered

"Oh no…" Manny realised what 'they' have to do.

"You do remember now, huh?" Ellie looked at him quite annoyed.

Everyone expected what Manny was about to say was serious or something that involved some of them.

And...they were disappointed.

"**I FORGOT THAT THE MATCH BETWEEN THE**** EAGLES VERSUS**** THE FALCONS IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN!**"

"No! Manny, that's not what I-"

Before Ellie could correct him, he had already started running straight back to camp in order to not miss it.

"Was he always like that?" Julian wondered.

"He has always been like that when you guys left for your first adventure." Ellie claimed.

"Awell, sun's about to go off, let's head back."

"Sure thing. Mom, wanna play a game with me tomorrow?" Peaches asked Ellie mischievously.

"Um...what is it?"

Peaches slowly pulled something from behind her, as everyone suddenly looked at her intensely.

"Hockey?" she said with her grip on two hockey sticks.

Everyone gave out a phew, as Ellie looked at her with two of her own motherly eyes.

"Well, don't cry when you lose alright?"

And so, they marched back to camp as the last rays of light started to disappear, and the starry night skies began to fall.

**END OF STORY**

_P.S:_ Welp, It's my 1st time writing a fanfic for a childhood movie that I loved, I learned a lot the more I progressed in it. I'll be making more Ice age stuff like this soon, I'm just quite busy a bit. And of course, Thank you all for sticking with me until the end of the story, your time reading this entire fanfic is **VERY DEARLY APPRECIATED. **

_Don't stop writing out thoughts from your head!_


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